Anti-ship missile

AGM-84 Harpoon firing from USS Decatur.

Martel guided anti-ship missile.

The MBDA Exocet Anti-ship missile.

Anti-ship missiles are guided missiles that are designed for use against ships and large boats at sea. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming type, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and radar homing. A good number of other anti-ship missiles use infrared homing to follow the heat that is emitted by a ship, and it is also possible for anti-ship missiles to be guided by radio command all the way.

The first anti-ship missiles, which were developed and built by Nazi Germany used radio command guidance, and these saw some success in the Mediterranean Theater in 1943 - 44, sinking or heavily damaging at least 31 ships by the Henschel Hs 293 and more than 7 by the Fritz X, such as the Italian battleship Roma or the cruiser USS Savannah. A variant of HS 293 had a TV transmitter on board. So the missile carrying bomber could fly outside the range of the ship AA guns using TV guidance to lead the missile to its target by the radio control.

Various anti-ship missiles ranging from large to smaller ones can be launched from a variety of weapons systems including surface warships (also referred to as ship-to-ship missiles), submarines, bombers, fighter planes, patrol planes, helicopters, shore batteries, land vehicles, and conceivably, even by infantrymen firing shoulder-launched missiles.

A typical acronym for the phrase "anti-ship missile" is ASM, but AShM can also be used to avoid confusion with air-to-surface missiles and anti-submarine missiles.

History

Anti-ship missiles were among the first instances of short-range guided missiles during World War II in 1943 - 44. The German Luftwaffe used the Fritz X, the Hs 293 and others, launched from its bombers, to deadly effect against some Allied ships in the Mediterranean Sea, such as seriously damaging the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Phoenix off Salerno, Italy. These all used radio command-guidance from the bombardiers of the warplanes that launched them. Some of these hit and either sank or damaged a number of ships, including warships offshore from amphibious landings on western Italy. These radio-controlled missiles were used successfully by the Luftwaffe until the Allied navies developed missile countermeasures - principally radio jamming. The Allies also developed some of their own similar radio-guided AShMs, such as the "Tiny Tim" and the SWOD-9 "Bat", but these saw little to no use in combat.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union turned to a sea-denial strategy concentrating on submarines, naval mines, and the AShM. One of the first products of the decision was the SS-N-2 "Styx" missile. Further products were to follow, and they were soon sighted on Soviet Air Force's Tu-95 Bear and Tu-22 Blinder bombers, in the case of the air-launched KS-1 Komet.

In 1967, the Israeli Navy's destroyer Eilat was sunk by a Styx missile launched by Egyptian missile boats off the Sinai Peninsula.

In the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 the Indian Navy conducted two raids using OSA 1 class missile boats employing the 'Styx' missile on the Pakistani Naval base of Karachi. These raids resulted in the destruction or crippling of approximately two thirds of the Pakistani Navy. Major losses included Two destroyers, a fleet oiler, an ammunition ship, approximately a dozen of merchantships and numerous smaller crafts. Major shore based facilities including fuel storage tanks and naval installations were destroyed. The Osas returned safely without losses.

The Battle of Latakia in 1973 was the scene of the world's first combat between anti-ship missile-equipped missile boats. In this battle, the Israeli Navy destroyed the Syrian warships without suffering any damage, especially by using electronic countermeasures for defense.

Anti-ship missiles were used in the 1982 Falklands War. The British warship HMS Sheffield, a 4,820 ton Type 42 Destroyer, was struck by a single air-launched Exocet AShM, and she later sank as a result of the damage that she sustained. The container ship Atlantic Conveyor was also sunk by an Exocet missile, and also the HMS Glamorgan was damaged. The Glamorgan was struck by an MM38 missile launched from an improvised trailer-based launcher taken from the Argentine Navy destroyer ARA Comodoro Seguí by Navy technicians^[1], but she was able to take evasive maneuvers that lessened her damage.

In 1987, a U.S. Navy guided-missile frigate, the USS Stark, was hit by an Exocet anti-ship missile fired by an Iraqi Mirage F-1 fighter plane. The USS Stark was damaged, but she was able steam to a friendly port for temporary repairs.

In October 1987, the Sungari, an American-owned tanker steaming under the Liberian flag, and also a Kuwaiti tanker steaming under the American flag, the Sea Isle City, were hit by Iranian HY-2 missiles.

In 1988 ASMs were fired by both American and Iranian forces in Operation Praying Mantis in the Persian Gulf. During this naval battle, several Iranian warships were hit by American ASMs (and by the U.S. Navy's Standard missiles - SAMs which were doing double-duty in the anti-ship role). The U.S. Navy hit the Iranian Navy light frigate IS Sahand with three Harpoon missiles, four AGM-123 Skipper rocket-propelled bombs, a Walleye laser-guided bomb, and several 1,000 lb "iron bombs". Despite the large number of munitions and successful hits, the 1,540 ton IS Sahand did not sink until fire reached her ammunition magazine, causing it to detonate, blowing the entire frigate to bits. [2] However, in the same engagement, American warships fired three Standard missiles at an Iranian Navy corvette. This corvette had such a low profile above the water that a Harpoon missile that arrived several minutes later could not lock on to it with their targeting radars.

In 2006, Lebanese Hezbollah renegades fired an AShM at the Israeli corvette INS Hanit, inflicting battle damage, but this warship made it back to Israel in one piece. A second missile in this same salvo struck and sunk an Egyptian merchant ship, as well.

Comparison

Threat posed

Anti-ship missiles are the bane of the modern naval surface combatant. Unlike the ground-combatant, who has the advantage of concealment, terrain, and, fundamentally, ground beneath his feet, the naval surface combatant is alone, presenting a warm target easily distinguishable from the cold water that surrounds her, with a boat sailing on a flat, relatively featureless expanse of ocean, which offers concealment and shelter to none, and is (eventually) naturally deadly to human life. As this is the case, threats that would merely slow down the ground combatant—such as guided missiles—are a much greater threat to the naval combatant. Possessing a speed and an agility that naval platforms cannot forseeably match, as well as computerized "smart" guidance systems and a heavy payload of high-explosive, the modern anti-ship missile, once it has acquired its target, is an enemy that the target ship cannot usually run from, hide from, physically avoid, or absorb.

Therefore, to counter the threat posed, the modern surface combatant has to either avoid being acquired by a platform possessing anti-ship missiles in the first place, has to destroy the enemy anti-ship-missile-carrying weapons system before it can launch any of its anti-ship missiles, or has to have active defense systems capable of deceiving or destroying the anti-ship missile prior to the anti-ship missile hitting its target. Modern navies have spent thousands, if not millions of man-years considering and responding to the threat of anti-ship missiles since World War II. The multiple, layered, computerized, active and passive defense systems employed by their surface combatants are designed with the anti-ship missile threat with certain exceptions.

The first layer of anti-missile missile defense by a modern, fully-equipped Aircraft Carrier Task Force is always the long-range missile-carrying fighter planes of the aircraft carrier herself. This is a capability that only the U.S. Navy has now, with its long-range, supersonic, F/A-18 Hornet fighter planes, and formerly with the F-14 Tomcat fighters with their very long-range Phoenix missiles. Several of these fighters are kept on combat air patrol 24 hours a day, seven days a week when at sea, and many more are put aloft in dangerous situations, such as during wartime or the threat of war.

These fighters patrol up to hundreds of miles away from the Carrier Task Force, and they are equipped with excellent airborne radar systems. When spotting a threatening anti-ship missile, these very fast jet fighters can approach the incoming missiles and attempt to shoot them down with their medium-range AMRAAM missiles or their shorter-range Sidewinder missiles. For the anti-ship missiles that evade these, the fighters are also capable of closing in on them and shooting at them with their 20 mm rapid-fire cannons.

However, some AShM's might "leak" past the Carrier Task Force's fighter-plane defenses, and also, many naval warships are not members of Carrier Task Forces. For these situations, there are other layers of missile defense present designed to protect warships from the anti-ship missile threat.

For example, the U.S. Navy has developed the computerized, automatic AEGIS anti-aircraft/ anti-cruise-missile/ anti-ballistic missile naval defense system, which can simultaneously track, engage, and destroy massive, though finite, quantities of incoming missiles using agile long-range and short-range surface-to-air missiles. Any missiles that leak through the AEGIS system can then be deceived using electronic countermeasures or decoys, or shot down by short-range anti-missile missiles, such as the NATO Sea Sparrow missile system carried by some warships or the Rolling Airframe Missile carried by others. They can also be shot at by the warship's 5-inch, multipurpose naval guns, or be shot to pieces by a last-ditch close-in weapon system, such as the Phalanx CIWS or the Goalkeeper CIWS. Russia (and the former Soviet Union), various European nations, and the People's Republic of China have developed and deployed similar systems.

However, even as effective as these naval air defense systems are, they only retain their effectiveness as long as they still have ammunition. And, even as expensive as the most-effective, modern anti-ship missiles are, they still remain extremely cost-effective, and they do not lose this cost-effectiveness when launched in their most dangerous threat modality - namely, in massive quantities intended to saturate and overwhelm their targets' defenses. Given that the replacement cost of a single Nimitz-class supercarrier, not to mention her irreplaceable crewmen, pilots, and aircraft on board, is far in excess of even one thousand of the most modern anti-ship missiles available, a quantity that, if they could be launched en masse at one target, would surely devastate even the most well-defended aircraft carrier that any sea-faring power could conceivably deploy.

As such, navies place a high premium on defending against anti-ship missiles, as even a handful getting through ship-based defenses could badly hurt an entire Naval Task Force.

Current threats and vulnerabilities

To counter these defense systems, countries like Russia are developing or deploying very low flying missiles (about five meters above sea level) that slowly cruise at a very low level to within a short range of their target and then, at the point when radar detection becomes inevitable, initiate a supersonic, high-agility sprint (potentially with anti-aircraft missile detection and evasion) to close the terminal distance. Missiles, such as the SS-N-27 Sizzler, that incorporate this sort of threat modality are regarded by U.S. Navy analysts as potentially being able to penetrate current U.S. Navy defensive systems.^[2]

Recent years have seen a growing amount of attention being paid to the possibility of ballistic missiles being re-purposed or designed for an anti-ship role. Speculation has focused on the development of such missiles for use by China for use by the People's Liberation Army Navy. Such an Anti-ship ballistic missile would approach its target extremely rapidly, making it very difficult to intercept.^[3]

Countermeasures

Countermeasures against anti-ship missiles include:

• Anti-missile missiles (such as the Sea Sparrow, SA-N-6 Grumble, SA-N-9 Gauntlet, the Rolling Airframe Missile, the Standard missile, or the Royal Navy's Sea Wolf missile)
• Close-in weapon systems (CIWS), including the American-made Phalanx CIWS, the European-made Goalkeeper CIWS, and their Soviet- or Russian-made counterparts Kashtan/Каштан. These are automated gun systems mounted on the deck of a ship that use radar to track the approaching missile, and then attempt to shoot it to bit during its final approach on the target.
• Anti-aircraft guns such as the Mk 45 5-inch naval gun or the AK-130
• Electronic warfare equipment (such as SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite)
• Decoy systems (such as "chaff" - the U.S. Navy's RBOC system), and "flares", or more active decoys such as the Nulka

Modern stealth ships – or ships that at least employ some stealth technology – to reduce the risk of detection and to make them harder target by the missile itself. These passive countermeasures include:

• reduction of their radar cross section (RCS) and hence radar signature.
• limit a ship's infrared signature and acoustic signature.

Examples of these include the Norwegian Skjold class patrol boats, Swedish Visby class corvettes, the German Sachsen class frigates, the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke class destroyers, their Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's close counterparts in AEGIS warships, the Chinese Type 054 frigates, Chinese Type 052C destroyers, Indian INS Shivalik Class, and the French La Fayette class frigates.

Notes

See also

• List of anti-ship missiles

External links

• Warship Vulnerability (tabulated shipping losses)
• List of SSSR/Russian anti-ship missiles