External ballistics

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External ballistics or exterior ballistics is the part of ballistics that deals with the behavior of a projectile in flight. It deals with projectiles under the influence of a gravitational field; it includes those powered and un-powered, guided and unguided, spin and fin stabilized, and flying through an atmosphere and in the vacuum of space. Gun-launched projectiles may be unpowered, deriving all their velocity from the propellant's ignition until the projectile exits the gun barrel. However, exterior ballistics analysis also deals with the trajectories of rocket-assisted gun-launched projectiles and gun-launched rockets and rockets that acquire all their trajectory velocity from the interior ballistics of their on-board propulsion system, either a rocket motor or air-breathing engine, both during their boost phase and after motor burnout. External ballistics is also concerned with the free-flight of other projectiles, such as balls, arrows etc.

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