Have cruise missiles changed all that much from V-1 days, apart from improved guidance systems, and the fact that they can now be launched from aircraft?
Some of ‘em go pretty fast, but maybe that’s not consistent with “cruise.”
Enormously improved guidance systems, no small thing. And the later blocks allow re-targeting during the mission, which may not be needed often but sure is a handy feature if new intel comes in while the missiles are enroute.
No more than modern cars have changed since the Model T.
About as much as cars...
The range is a lot longer than the aircraft launched antiship cruise missile deployed by the Nazis. Henschel Hs 293.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henschel_Hs_293
Yes. Modern ones do not have to be launched in a straight line to the target, can actually detect threats and react to them (diverting), can fly literally nap of the earth on their own sensors, and can have multiple warheads.
They can also be launched from subs.
“Have cruise missiles changed all that much from V-1 days, apart from improved guidance systems”
The only similarity is that the both are non-ballistic missiles.
V-1s were powered by a pulse jet engine that implodes after only a few minutes of operation, could not self-start or self-launch and had a top speed of 400 miles/hour, whereas modern cruise missiles are propelled by turbofan engines.
To say modern cruise missiles haven’t changed all that much except guidance from V-1s is akin to saying a 2018 Cadillac hasn’t changed all that much since Karl Benz connected a 2-cycle engine to the axle of a horseless carriage with added tiller ...
Well yes...... They don’t just sputter out and crash
Actually, they have little in common with the V1