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AMR-June-July-2013

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N A V A L<br />

ANTI-SURFACE WARFARE<br />

One of the most popular long range gun systems<br />

is Oto Melara's 127mm (5 inch) mounting. Oto<br />

Melara are developing a range of extended<br />

range ammunition, Vulcano, for this mounting<br />

© Oto Melara<br />

Similar weapons are MBDA’s Otomat Mk 2<br />

used by Bangladesh and Malaysia, the<br />

Russian 3M24 Uran (Uranium) selected by<br />

India and Vietnam and China’s YJ-83 or<br />

CSS-N-6 ‘Saccade’ whose export version is<br />

designated C-802 with version used by<br />

Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Myanmar,<br />

Pakistan and Thailand. Asian-produced<br />

weapons are Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy<br />

Industries Type 90 (SSM-1B) and South<br />

Korea’s LIG Nex1 Haeseong (Sea Star) or<br />

SSM-700K as well as Taiwan’s Hsiung Feng<br />

II (Brave Wind II).<br />

There is a growing Asian interest in<br />

supersonic anti-ship missiles which have<br />

the advantage of reducing a target’s reaction<br />

times; indeed they can halve the<br />

effective range of close-in weapon systems.<br />

But their very velocity is the problem,<br />

and the reason they are not more<br />

widely used for they have less time for<br />

their radar processors to evaluate information<br />

from the sensor and allow the<br />

guidance system to react. Indeed it has<br />

been suggested they may be more vulnerable<br />

to electronic counter-measures than<br />

sub-sonic weapons which have sufficient<br />

fuel to re-acquire lost targets.<br />

India uses both the Russian<br />

3M80/3M82 Moskit (Mosquito) or SS-N-22<br />

‘Sunburn’ and the PJ-10 Brahmos, jointly<br />

developed with the Russians, while China<br />

also uses ‘Sunburn’ but only in Russianbuilt<br />

Sovremenny class destroyers.<br />

‘Sunburn’ is capable of Mach 3, has a range<br />

of 65 nautical miles (120 kilometres) and<br />

carries a 320 kilogramme warhead while<br />

Brahmos is a Mach 2.8 ramjet-powered<br />

These missiles also have a degree of<br />

intelligence approaching their target indirectly,<br />

turning at a predetermined way<br />

point or even way points, and at varying<br />

heights depending upon whether or not<br />

the mission requirement is for fuel efficiency,<br />

to achieve greater range or a<br />

covert approach, flying just above the<br />

waves to make them more difficult for the<br />

target’s radars to detect. Alternatively, the<br />

missiles can be pre-set to dive upon the<br />

target at a steep angle for greater lethality.<br />

Because they are designed to strike the<br />

most vulnerable part of a ship both<br />

Harpoon and Exocet have smaller warheads<br />

than ‘Styx’; 221 and 165 kilogrammes<br />

respectively. The turbo-jet powered<br />

Harpoon had the longer range, up to 130<br />

nautical miles (240 kilometres) compared<br />

with 38 nautical miles (70 kilometres) in the<br />

rocket-powered Exocet MM40 but Exocet<br />

Block 3 has a turbo-jet engine giving a<br />

range of 97 nautical miles (180 kilometres)<br />

with greater accuracy thanks to the incorporation<br />

of a Global Positions System (GPS)<br />

unit using satellite navigation inputs.<br />

The Boeing (formerly McDonnell Douglas)<br />

Harpoon anti-ship missile is used extensively by<br />

Asia's navies © Boeing<br />

l JUNE/JULY <strong>2013</strong> l 53

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