Guided weapons depend on people and precision industry

The missile-versus-fighter choice involved more than two competing designs because both demanded scarce engineers, factories, and precision components. A crewed interceptor could respond directly, while remote guidance shifted risk into electronics that had to survive launch acceleration and vibration. This demanding equipment was pursued while German manufacturing capacity deteriorated. The regime increasingly relied on coerced labour from occupied territories, concentration camps connected to the Holocaust, and Soviet prisoners of war. Those conditions were poorly suited to the exact machine setup and consistent tolerances demanded by advanced weapons. Industrial organization and human expertise mattered as much to guided-missile performance as the aerodynamic idea on paper.