Re: Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs



Andre Lieven wrote:



We were discussing the real operational capabilities for advanced Russian antishipping missiles versus what Russia claims for them, but if there is a country out there that presents a real threat in arming countries with missiles that might be able to get through our ships defenses it would be China, which designs missiles specifically for an export market, and has a lot of different designs including ones considerably more advanced than the Silkworm available: http://www.sinodefence.com/missile/antiship/default.asp


Lots of designs is one thing. Some such actually operational, thats
another thing. As China has few surface combattants that would even
qualify as late 70s cutting edge, I cannot say that I'm all that
worried.

Interested, sure. But, if the threat of the fUSSR's navy was managable, though risky, then China's should be far less of an
issue. But, it does bear watching, of course.



One problem I see is that Russia sold them their SS-N-22 "Sunburn" missile:
http://www.sinodefence.com/missile/antiship/3m80.asp
"Powered by a liquid-ramjet engine with four solid rocket boosters, The 3M80 missile has the fastest flying speed among all anti-ship missiles in today's world. The missile is supersonic (Mach 2.1), low-flying (7 to 20 m, or about 23 to 66 feet, above the surface of the water) and performs a terminal ‘S’ manoeuvre (pulling up to 15G) to evade close-in defenses at a distance of 5 to 7 km (about 2.7 to 3.8 nautical miles) to its target. The 3M-80E missile, an improved variant of the basic 3M-80, has an operational range of 160 km.

When slower missiles, like the French Exocet are used, the maximum theoretical response time for the defending ship is 150-120 seconds. This provides time to launch countermeasures and employ jamming before deploying "hard" defense tactics such as launching missiles and using quick-firing artillery. But the 3M82 missiles are extremely fast and give the defending side a maximum theoretical response time of merely 25-30 seconds, rendering it extremely difficult employ jamming and countermeasures, let alone fire missiles and quick-firing artillery.

<>GUIDANCE
During its initial flight stage, the 3M-80E uses inertia guidance with update input from the targeting radar onboard a shipborne helicopter or a space satellite. When it is reaching the final stage of its flight, the missile’s Altair-designed multi-channel seeker uses active radar, anti-radiation and home-on-jam modes to ensure that the missile hits the target."

They'll be able to back-engineer the missile's propulsion and electronics, and that will bring them fully up to speed (bad pun) with modern antiship missiles.
Then they may well start selling their copy to anyone who wants them. And there may be a lot of countries who want them.


The Iraqis had Shaddocks?



My bad. I meant to write Silkworm.


You had be going there; I was wondering it the Soviets ever gave them to anyone outside the Warsaw Pact.
Ever see a Tu-123 "Yastreb" reconnaissance drone? The Soviets deployed some of these monsters in Eygpt:
http://www.aviation.ru/Tu/Tu-123_139.jpg
Take a pot shot at a ship with one of those sometime. :-)

Pat
.

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