Anti-ship missiles
HMS Sheffield (above) on fire after her fatal Exocet hit, 4 May 1982, off the Falklands and USS Stark on fire and listing after taking two Exocet AM-39s aboard (one failed to explode) 17 May 1987 in the Persian Gulf.
“Six, eight, heave,” is long gone from the gunner’s drill manual. No longer do numbers six and eight of a gun’s crew haul on the tackles to run out a muzzle-loader before the premier gun fired at an enemy maybe 1,000 long yards away.
The Germans were the first to use anti-ship guided missiles when a Henschel Hs-293 radio-guided liquid rocket-propelled glide bomb sank the sloop HMS Egret in the Bay of Biscay, 27 August 1943. The Hs-293A had a small HWK 109-507B rocket engine, a 500 kg warhead and weighed 1045 kg at launch. The Hs-293B version was wire-guided. Released from about 20,000 feet, both Hs-293 versions had an 8.5 km range against a primary target of unarmoured ships. The Fritz-X was another guided missile built with similar controls, the Kehl-Strassburg FuG 203/230 system, but it had an armour-piercing capability and appeared operationally in the Mediterranean a couple of weeks later. The Fritz-X had a range of about 6.5 km when launched at 18,000 feet, a 320 kg amatol warhead and weighed 1360 kg. These wire-guided or radio-controlled glide bombs came as a nasty surprise.
Where it all began: The Henschel Hs 293A-1 (left) and Ruhrstall/Kramer SD 1400 Fritz-X.
The Italian battleship Roma, surrendering to the Allies, sank after two Fritz-X hits on 9 September. The first missile penetrated the hull and exploded underneath the ship. The second detonated her forward magazine. Another of their early successes was the virtually unsinkable HMS Warspite (until she broke her tow and foundered on the way to the ship breakers in 1947.) Her “two black balls,” ever ready and exercised frequently in action over the years, were at her yardarm once more on 16 September 1943. She was the first Allied battleship ever to call “not under command” after two anti-ship guided missiles disabled her (Churchill 1952, p. 128).
Oddly, most post-WWII naval historians studiously ignored the enormous ramifications that flowed from these seminally important events. As just one measure of change, if we include weapons such as the anti-radar HARM and air-to-air missiles, the guided munition’s prevalence among all heavy ordnance fired increased from virtually zero before 1942 to 80 per cent in Kosovo in 1999.
A Russian Styx SS-N-2 (P-15Termit) on a transport trolley (left) and loading aboard a Russian vessel (right).
Today, dozens of nations possess many kinds of anti-ship missiles, which are carried in a wide variety of ships, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and even submarines. Ship-launched missiles include the early Russian P-15 Termit (USA Code SS-N-2 Styx), like the pair launched from an Egyptian Komar class fast patrol boat that sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat on 21 October 1967.They were active again in 1971 when similar missiles sank or damaged five Pakistan ships.
More recently, French-made Exocets launched from Argentine naval aircraft sank two British ships, the Sheffield and Atlantic Conveyer, probably seriously damaged the light cruiser Glamorgan and played havoc with Army Support plans during the 1982 Falklands campaign. A pair of Exocets fired from an Iraqi Mirage 2000, ostensibly at an Iranian tanker, also severely damaged the USS Stark in the Persian Gulf 17 May 1987, even though one warhead failed to explode.
Homing
Unlike the manually-guided Hs-293, Fritz-X and even the Vietnam-era Bullpup, all of which required good visibility and a cloud-free piece of sky, modern anti-ship weapons might use self-contained radar, TV or infra-red homers to make their final deadly run onto the target. Surface skimmers have also been developed to replace the diving attack.
Gradual upgrades of first generation missiles, such as the popular Styx, Exocet and the American Harpoon, saw better propulsion and guidance systems emerge over the years. Finally, the evolved Russian tactic of launching many anti-ship missiles in the one salvo, with one possibly sacrificial “high” missile homing a group of sea-skimming “killers”, still provides a thorny defence problem for surface ships, including aircraft carrier battle groups.
Cross-fertilisation
There was also considerable cross-fertilisation between weapons and even between nations that led to a sometimes confusing alphanumeric soup.
For instance, the Russian-built ship-launched Styx has a liquid-fuelled rocket motor and a range of about 43 miles at Mach 0.9. Most Styx versions carry an active radar homer, but the P-15M version has increased range and an auxiliary infra-red seeker. This led in turn to the P-20, which was basically a P-15M with a new guidance system. The P-20 then evolved into the P-27 (SS-N-2D Styx), which incorporated the sophisticated electronics of the massive P-270 Moskit (SS-N-22 Sunburn).
SS-N-3 class
The early Russian SS-N-3 series evolved from Project 5 (P-5), a submarine-launched and optionally nuclear-armed 310-miles range cruise missile, along the lines of the American Regulus and Matador. The P-5D version, codenamed SSC-1A Shaddock, was a tactical surface-to-surface weapon. Two anti-ship variants, the P-35 (SS-N-3B Sepal) and the P-6 (SS-N-3C Shaddock) had INS-Doppler navigation systems with an active radar terminal attack phase. These weapons had a range of about 220 miles and delivered an 800 kg conventional or nuclear warhead at Mach 1.4. Carried in about 50 Russian cruisers and submarines during the 1960s, they initially required vulnerable air support to locate the target and guide the missile mid-course. By the1970s the Russian space-based MKRC Legenda system performed some of these guidance tasks.
The SS-N-3 Shaddock family of missiles paralleled the short-lived (1955-64) American Chance-Vought Regulus (USN) and Martin Matador (USAF) designs, having a rocket booster launcher, a turbojet engine for sustained flight and an optional nuclear warhead.
(The Shaddock, above, was displayed in the Central Army Museum, Moscow, 2008.)
These weapons were less than ideal because both American and Russian submarines had to surface to fire them, the missiles required several minutes to set up and required at least periscope-depth data links or a vulnerable aircraft for mid-course guidance during their 30 minutes or so time of flight. The later (1968-95) 35-mile range 3500 kg P-70 Ametyst (SS-N-7 Starbright) could be launched underwater and had an active radar target seeker. The improved near-3000 kg P-120 Malakhit (SS-N-9 Siren) had a 60 miles range. Introduced in 1972 the Siren may still be found in some ships, but it is being replaced by the SS-N-2 Sunburn.
The P-500 Bazalt (SS-N-12 Sandbox) became operational in 1975 and could be fired relatively easily from surface ships and submarines.
The longer range 4800 kg P-500 Bazalt (SS-N-12 Sandbox) and its derivative, the V-1000 Vulkan, started to replace the Shaddock in some Russian ships around 1975. They have conventional jet engines, a range of 340 miles, a 950 kg warhead and speeds of Mach 2.5 – 2.8.
The 7000 kg P-700 Granat introduced a massive “salvo” solution to the layered defence of the American battle group. An experimental version with a ramjet engine reportedly achieved Mach 4.
The inordinately complex P-700 Granat (SSN-19 Shipwreck) came on line about 1981 but eventually was a great success. It has a maximum speed of Mach 2.5 at altitude and is designed to be fired in multiple salvos against carrier battle group targets. One missile in 24 goes high, using its radar in passive and active modes, to locate and home on the target; the remaining missiles obey its mid-course guidance directions. Should that high missile be shot down, another automatically climbs to take its place. The Shipwreck carries a 750 kg conventional or nuclear warhead and has a range of 340 miles.
Other anti-ship missiles from Russia include a fourth generation 1995 version Kh-35 (3M24) Uran (SS-N-25 Switchblade), which features a ramjet sustainer, 80 miles range and a 145 kg warhead. This latter missile is similar to the USN’s Harpoon. It has been exported with Russian-built frigates and one variation, the AS-20 Kayak, was developed for air-launch from SU-30 and MiG-29 aircraft, with improved air-launch range possibilities. Another recent addition to the Russian and some other armouries is the P-800 Onyx/Yakhont (SS-N-26 Stallion) which has been exported to India as the PJ-10 BrahMos.
One member of the P-900 Klub family, the SS-N-27 Sizzler, looks very much like an American Tomahawk cruise missile, but one anti-shipping version can deliver a supersonic final sprint with a 200-400kg warhead.
The modern P-900 Klub family of missiles (e.g. SS-N-27 Sizzler) may be fired from 533 mm horizontal (Klub-S) or vertical launch (Klub-N) tubes mounted in submarines. The 91RE2 (short) and 91RE1 (long) versions are 22- to 30-mile range anti-submarine missiles, carrying a homing torpedo. The 1300 kg subsonic 3M14 is a land-attack cruise missile with a range of about 200 miles. The 2300kg 3M54 (3M54E export version) is a supersonic three-stage anti-shipping vehicle with a turbojet sustainer engine. It has a 190-mile range carrying a 200 to 400 kg warhead.
Massive Moskit
The massive 320 kg (optional nuclear) warhead Russian P-270 Moskit (SS-N-22 Sunburn) can be launched from aircraft or surface ships.
In service since 1984 in Russian and Chinese Sovremennyy class destroyers, as well as Russian frigates, patrol craft and aircraft, the P-270 Moskit is a nasty beastie. It is one of the most successful Russian anti-ship missiles made in that it is fitted to many ships of all classes in Russia and China. It has a range of 57 to 100 miles and uses active radar and a data link backup guidance system. Its faster-than-a-speeding-bullet velocity of Mach 1.5 to 2.5 is maintained by liquid-fuelled ramjet engines.
It becomes plain why and aircraft such as the Kaman Seasprite, with an AGM-119 Penguin anti-shipping missile, would have been so valuable to the RAN. Enemy surface vessels mounting Styx- or Sunburn-type weapons must be kept at bay. Short of a fortuitous submarine or RAAF FIII aircraft, the Seasprite and Penguin was about the only Australian weapons system that could hope to do this.
Exocet
The French Aerospatiale-Dassault Exocet gradually evolved from the MM-38 to the MM-40. The first ship-launched MM-38 entered service in 1975 and the air-launched vehicle commissioned four years later. The AM-39 and SM-39 versions are air- and submarine-launched, respectively.
The Exocet AM 39 (left) and twin Exocets mounted on a Mirage 2000, like the aircraft that attacked the Stark.
The Exocet is about 5.8 metres long, weighs 855 kg (1884 lb) and its solid rocket engine delivers a 165 kg (364 lb) warhead at Mach .93 out to a maximum range of 65 km (35 miles). It has an inertial navigation system and an active radar homer. Its makers boast that the Exocet Block 2 variant has a longer range, a better target seeker and better reliability.
A virtual Russian equivalent, the SS-N-7 Starbright, can also be launched from a submarine. It has a 24 nm range at Mach 0.9 and it homes using a similar class of active radar.
Harpoon
McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft (now Boeing) flew the first Harpoon in 1972 and the USN selected the Harpoon as its primary anti-ship weapon in 1973. They produced the first USN AGM-84 Harpoon Block 1A for the USN in 1977 (1979 for the air launch version).
The Block 1B version, introduced in 1982, had a better sea-skimming potential. Later improvements included longer range and more flexible waypoint options. The Harpoon Block 1G version, sold to international customers after 1997, has better mission flexibility, an improved target seeker and an important ability to re-attack its target. Surface-launched versions have a solid-propellant rocket booster but both variants cruise on a liquid-fuelled turbojet engine at a “high subsonic” speed out to about a 67 miles range. An active radar provides terminal guidance. Different versions may be launched from surface ships, including RAN Adelaide and Anzac Class frigates, submarines and aircraft such as RAAF P-3 Orions, USAF B-52Gs and the F/A-18 Hornet.
A surface-launch Harpoon (left) has its primary booster providing all the initial thrust while a pair of air-launched models are mounted on an F-18 Hornet.
Dimensions vary, according to different authors and missile versions, but Boeing says the Harpoon is about 3.85 metres long and weighs 555 kg (1225 lb) when air launched with a high explosive warhead weighing 222 kg (488 lb). The ship-launched Harpoon is longer and heavier, because it has a solid rocket booster. Boeing claims delivery of more than 6,800 Harpoons, including their SLAM land target derivatives, to 24 American and international customers. A Russian equivalent is the Kh-35 Uran (SS-N-25 Switchblade) with an active radar homer and data link guidance.
AGM-142E Popeye/Have Nap/Raptor
After a “very rigorous” (Kopp 1996) selection process, dating from the 1980s, the Australian Government finally elected in 1996 to purchase the AGM-142E Popeye (AKA Raptor, Have Nap) for their 20 F/RF-111C AUP bombers. Originally developed in the late 1980s by Rafael Defence Industries, Israel, the AGM-142 is touted as a hefty (1360 kg, 3000 lb) supersonic, 90 km (50 nautical miles) range, solid-fuel air-to-surface guided missile. It is manufactured in the USA by Lockheed Martin, primarily for the USAF’s obsolescent B-52G/H heavy bombers. Operational with the USAF since 1992, it was not used in the Iraq War, ostensibly because the weapon design originated in Israel and maybe because of its cost (advertised as US$1.02 million per round).
The AGM-142E Popeye (left) and its “lite” version, Popeye 2.
The Popeye’s main RAAF competitors were the jet-propelled AGM-158 JASSM with a 450 kg warhead, and the AGM-84H SLAM-ER carrying a 360 kg punch. The RAN’s helicopter-launched AGM-119B Penguin was apparently not considered because of its limited range (16 miles) and comparatively small warhead (120 kg).
The Popeye 2 (aka Have Lite) has the same AGM-142 warhead and guidance systems as its parent. This slightly shorter and lighter (1130 kg, 2500 lb) version is intended for fighter aircraft. Popeye requires a separate 393 kg data link pod for mid-course and homing corrections.
An F-111 with an AGM-142 Popeye under its port wing (left). The weapon’s data link pod is seen attached to the F-111’s rear fuselage, astern of the main wheels. At right, the data pod is attached to the inner starboard hard point of an RAAF F111. (RAAF photo by SGT T. Baldwin)
The AGM-142E Popeye is guided by optional TV or infra-red seeker homers, with inertial navigation, GPS and command mid-course guidance via a data link. Within its total weapon weight of about 1360 kg, the AGM-142E carries either a 340 kg (750 lb) blast/fragmentation warhead or a 350 kg (770 lb) armour piercing package. Australian F111s carry their associated data link pod on a separate external hard point (see photo above).
AGM-158A (left, Lockheed Martin photo) and AGM-84H (Boeing graphic).
Under development since an original AGM-137 TSSAM contract was cancelled in 1995 because of cost overruns and slow progress. The derived AGM-158 JASSM was initially listed as a “Joint Services” weapon, but is now slated, when developed, to replace the USAF’s AGM-142 and to have a range of maybe 200 miles. Unfortunately, its development continues to be marred, for instance, by launcher and engine problems in two successive failed operational test trials in 2003. According to information released on 28 February 2006, the AGM-158 will also equip RAAF F-18 Hornets. An extended range version, the AGM-158B, might reach out 500 miles.
AGM-84E SLAM, AGM-84H SLAM-ER, AGM-84H/K SLAM-ATA
The USN’s AGM-84E Stand-off Land Attack Missile (SLAM) came on line around 1990. The missile was initially cobbled together from proven elements of the Maverick’s infra-red seeker, the Walleye’s glide bomb data link, the Tomahawk’s warhead, an inertial navigation system, a GPS and the Harpoon’s engine and airframe. More than 700 AGM-84Es have been manufactured to date for use by platforms that include the fighter-strike F/A-18 and even P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft. Aircraft in the Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts carried the weapon.
The USN quit the “joint” AGM-158 JASSM/TASSM program in favour of its cheaper and proven AGM-84H SLAM-ER missile, which has been in service since 1998. The AGM-84H SLAM-ER is basically an upgraded jet-engined Harpoon derivative, with a high subsonic speed of Mach 0.85 and range of over 150 miles. It weighs only 635 kg (1400 lb) and has optional infra-red and active radar target homing capabilities, together with GPS and command mid-course guidance. It is equally suitable for land and ship targets and is listed at about US$720,000 per round. The AGM-85H/K SLAM-ATA version, in service since 2002, has a re-attack capability and a target acquisition system that matches seeker target images with on-board references. If the missile fails to find its target on its first pass, it will fly a cloverleaf pattern until it either finds its target or exhausts its fuel.
However, these highly successful weapons cannot match the range and/or power of land target specialist missiles, such as the big Tomahawk or the cheap (US$18,000) inertial navigator- and GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bolt-on addition to cheap “dumb” bombs that gives a near-enough 10 metre CEP.
The American Harpoon and French Exocet are probably the most widely deployed specialist anti-shipping missiles, with Russian and Chinese Styx versions running close behind. A dozen or more nations produce anti-ship missiles, including Russia, China, Japan, France, Italy and even Norway.
RAN’s Penguin
Norway’s Kongsberg produced the Penguin in 1972 (see details at Penguin). It has been developed in conjunction with Grumman Aerospace in the USA and purchased for use with the RAN’s Seasprite helicopters but there are Penguin variants that launch from frigates and others from fixed wing aircraft.
Purchased for the ill-fated Super Seasprite, the solid rocket-powered Penguin weighs about 385 kg (848 lb), it is about three metres long, has a 16 nm range and carries a 120 kg (265 lb) warhead. The Penguin has a cunning target discriminator. Its infra-red homer seeks not the hottest heat source, but a pre-configured heat differential signature, such as the difference between a ship’s hull and the seawater around it. Simple heat-generating flare decoys are reportedly ineffective. An “improved” ship-launched Penguin, developed in cooperation with Aerospatiale-Matra, is expected to have a range of 60 miles, weigh 420 kg (925 lb) and be powered by a jet engine.
Even Taiwan produces a jet-powered anti-ship missile for launch by aircraft and ships. Its Hsuing Feng II has a reported range of 80 nm and carries both active radar and infra-red homing systems.
Other weapons
In addition to the dedicated anti-ship missiles, there are a host of aircraft-launched anti-radar and other missiles that have the potential to threaten surface ships nowadays. Air-to-air missiles, such as the Sparrow and Phoenix, have an anti-ship capability, as Hobart found to her cost off Vietnam. These missiles typically carry only relatively small warheads, but two or three might seriously damage or even sink a modern destroyer. At the other end of the spectrum, Russia has a very large number air- surface- or underwater-lunched big anti-ship missiles, including some with nuclear warhead capability, supersonic Mach 2.5 speed and ranges from 75 to more than 200 nm.
Anti-ship missile upgrades aim for ever-increasing speed, range and warhead weight, while reducing total weight and bulk and improving target discrimination at ever lower cruise altitudes. “Stealth” is factor mentioned in sales brochures and web sites, but no missile has much of a radar footprint, compared with an aircraft, so this might not be too important. A needle in a haystack might well be “stealthier” than a drawing pin, but neither is easy to find.
Increased range, of course, infers better decoy, attack and re-attack capability. GPS guidance is also a touted benefit but while it might give marginally better waypoint and land target flexibility, modern inertial navigation systems, like the Penguin’s, are good enough for most mid-course control. Perhaps improved data links, target discrimination and homing, together with weight reduction, greater speed, reliability, low maintenance and cheaper cost, offer the most fruitful avenues for future research. One American Boeing project is working on a year 2010 production of a 600 miles range Mach 7 missile with a ramjet engine that can be launched from ships, aircraft and submarines and locate targets both ashore and afloat.
The long range naval gun might not yet be dead, but starting with Warspite and, particularly since the 1970s, the big gun is being gradually eclipsed by a variety of missiles launched from land, ships, submarines, fixed wing aircraft and even helicopter platforms. Maybe the smaller 5-inch equivalent guns are not that far behind. In one sense all this is disappointing. The drama, accuracy and destruction zone of a “fire for effect” from a 16-inch battleship on a ground target 20 nm away was awe-inspiring.
References:
Churchill, W.S. The Second World War Vol 5: Closing the ring. Cassell and Co: London,1952.
Kopp, C. (1996) AGM-142 Raptor: The RAAF’s new standoff weapon. Air power Australia. December 1996.
Nordeen, L.O. (2001) Antiship missiles create new challenges. UNSI Proceedings. 127/1 January, pp 87-89.
Websites:
Boeing web site: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/missiles/harpoon/harpoon.htm; http://www. boeing.com/defense-space/missiles/harpoon/harpoonspec.htm.Russian-Soviet Naval Missiles: http://www.dtig.org/docs/Russian-Soviet_Naval_Missiles.pdf.
Kopp, C. (2008) Killing the vampire. http://www.ausairpower.net/DT-Vampires-2008.pdf
Slade S. web site: http://www. warships1.com/Weapons/WMRUS_ASHmis.htm.
Soviet-Russian Naval Cruise Missiles site:http://www.vectorsite.net/twcruz_7.html.
Sunflower web site: http://sun-flower.singnet. com.sg~/weilong/harpoon.html.
USN web site: http:// www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/missiles/wep-harp.html.