coming back from attaining an important call ....
1- I sniff you have "wikipediaed"....I had somebody raising the same thing before. The definition wikipedia is that of terrain following radar,
Meaning of Terrian Maping is that measuring geographic field area ...
All the aeroplane measure it's height from ground using a small radar called "distance measuring equipment" or DME.
therefore if you want to measure your distance from ground then you have to observe earth surface using this radar ....
this is a basic thing and for it you don't have to search on google ....
terrain hugging is a technique where a missile maintains a very low flight using a trrain following radar or techniques. The end result is a very low flight and hard detection.
Certainly if you maintain a terrian hugging technique or fly your missile as much as near to ground then you will have to cover less distance so you will get low flight and can reach your target much quicker.
hard detection :: you can see a kite flying over the sky but you can not see a object just at 3 meter height from the ground under the foot of the kite.
2- As you pointed out the even high flying cruise missile have reduced signature...then it effectively means that when one has difficulty in recording a signature at higher altitude, it would be impossible (taking your view) to detect the signature of low flying cruise missile since the ground heat emission disturbs the heat targeting even when turbofan engines are used...
low altitude flying cruise missile with advance engine can skip infrared detection .. true.. but jet engine always provide much less speed like plane ..... do you think babur posses so advanced engine?
and secondly the RCS of cruise missiles is already far less low as compared to fighters, add ground clutter and maneuverability it forms a deadly combination with element of surprise...Stealthy, well you can always reduce the RCS to as low as possible, but performance parameters may be significantly affected....anyways where did you get
second missiles posses lower RCS than planes but as this non-stealthy,less speedy (speed like plane) missile will fly with low altitude can never skip radar although it will remain "hard detection" ... but once it is detected it will be destroyed immediately by a supersonic or hypersonic anti missile and it's low altitude will always provide the anti-missiles a great advantage because those anti-missiles have to cover less distance ... so it can be destroyed quickly(it may avoid infrared but must not avoid radar)
from?.......i am amazed how the author has confused effectively auto leveling with Tarrain mapping...would love to know the source...thanks
I already explained ....
babur is a junk .... if you actually need missiles against india then build big missile which take the huge trajectory like "peacekeeper"
Good night