Lock-on after launch

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Lock-on after launch (LOAL) is the ability of missile systems to lock-on to a target after being launched from a carrier vehicle. The term is normally used in reference to airborne weapons, especially air-to-air missiles, though more modern Air-to-surface missiles and Surface-to-surface missiles are starting to display this capability as well. Most, if not all Loitering munitions are incapable of LOBL targeting (definition below), and thus use LOAL targeting. LOAL is an important part of modern weapon systems as it allows a weapon to be carried internally (onboard an aircraft) to increase stealth and then to acquire a target once it has been launched.

LOAL systems normally rely on cuing from a helmet-mounted sight or onboard sensors such as radar or forward-looking infrared (FLIR) and use a simple strapdown inertial guidance system to know where to look after launch. Examples of LOAL weapons include the Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM), later versions of the AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missile as well as the LR, LR2,^[1] ER, ER2^[2] and NLOS^[3] variants of the Spike anti-tank missile.

The older method of launch has retroactively become known as lock-on before launch (LOBL), although this term is not commonly used and is a "backronym" that distinguishes it from the LOAL method.