Herald

Actually, that is a decent point.

Often in colloquial use, in miliitary circles "missiles" are thought of as guided, and "rockets" are not.

 

However, in the "canonical" dictionaries (e.g., Mirriam-Webster) "missile" and "rocket" have similar definitions, and you have to go to a term like "guided missile". So the abbreviation GMLRS is not completely ridiculous.

 

It wouldn't be the first time. There is the FFAR (Free Flight Aerial Rocket), which some would say is grossly redundant term.

...IIRC, that was the designation given, initially, to the multi-round air-to-air Stinger setup used on helos (Apache, Kiowa, & ?)

MLMS, Multipurpose Lightweight Missile System.

 

 

 

Wasn't another breakdown of that acronym stand for Folding Fin Aerial (or Air-launched?) Rocket?

I'm pretty sure that's how the Hydra 70 is listed.

 

 

NATO, AAP-6 Glossary, defines rocket as ' A self-propelled vehicle whose trajectory or course, while in flight, cannot be controlled.'  Logically I think it could be argued that if it can be controlled then it's not a rocket!

 

However, AAP-6 offers no defintion of missile.

 

The Shorter Oxford English Dicitonary (and Oxford dictionaries are the official English dictionaries of most international bodies including NATO) offers a general noun covering anything thrown anyhow or projected from a machine and a second specific definition 'A destructive projectile that is self-propelling and directed by remote control or automatically'. 

 

SOED offers 3 definitions of rockets, which is presumably why NATO uses its own succinct one and then uses the SOED's missile without repeating it in AAP-6.