Traditionally speaking, rockets are unguided, relatively small and carried/used in relatively large quantities as an area weapon. Missiles tended to be larger, guided, used for precision strike and much more limited in numbers.
Guided rockets blurs the line between the two by adding precision guidance to rockets. The intended purpose of guided rockets are to significantly increase the precision strike loadout of attack helicopters and also to reduce the costs of each shot.
So the biggest practical differences between a guided rocket and a missile will be in terms of size and cost. Which in turn means bigger warhead and range for the missile.
The inception of guided rockets was at a time when the west enjoyed unchallenged full spectrum military dominance. So the focus shifted from winning the fight to saving money.
If we take the Ukraine-Russia war as an example, I really don’t rate the value of guided rockets due to the high threat of MANPADs. You need to get much closer to use a guided rocket compared to a dedicated ATGM never mind NLOS missile, which is where the general trend is moving towards.
So I think guided rockets are a bit of a dead end for manned attack helicopters, but they may be of great worth for unmanned platforms owning to the smaller size and weight.
