Anti-Ship Missiles Thread

The UKSK launcher is a unified launch system that can launch Onyx, Yakhont, Brahmos, Kalibr, and the Klub family of missiles.

The actual missiles loaded in those tubes depends on what the ship is expected to do on its mission.

The Onyx/Yakhont/Brahmos is basically the replacement for the Moskit/SS-N-22 Sunburn and also the Vulcan/Granit and in the domestic version (Onyx) has a range of between 500km and 700km at Mach 2.5-3.

It will likely be replaced by the Brahmos II/ Zirconium Hypersonic missile with the ramjet propulsion replaced with a scramjet resulting in a speed increase likely to mach 7 or so.

The Kalibr/Klub system with long range cruise missiles for land attack and anti ship use will also be used as not every target needs very high speed.

Long and very long range weapons will be very useful even to Russian Corvettes as the information system includes satellite based detection systems and the data collection and sharing system means every vessel from ship to sub has a picture of the sea surface, beneath the surface and the airspace above it.

A corvette doesn't need to detect an enemy ship with its own radar to launch a long range missile attack upon it.

I believe Klub is subsonic missile.It only has a terminal warhead which flies at high supersonic speed for only 30-40 kms max.

A bit of history is needed... in the 1980s the Soviets had two subsonic nuclear armed cruise missiles... one was the Kh-55 and Kh-55SM land attack cruise missile used by the Russian air force... the latter with extended range using saddle fuel tanks to extend range.

The other was the SS-N-21 Granat, which was a different missile but basically of the same performance and use... subsonic all the way with accuracy of about 200-250m CEP which meant nuclear warhead was manditory.

During the 1990s they improved guidance and other parameters and by 2000 they were testing the Kh-101 and Kh-102 which were much longer ranged (5,000km) and much more accurate (less than 20m CEP) which allowed the two models... one nuclear armed and one conventionally armed.

The terminal guidance systems were accurate enough to allow conventional payloads to be effectively used so the guidance system was applied to the older Kh-55 to create the Kh-555 conventional cruise missile.

In the case of the naval missile the problems were multiplied because subsonic all the way just wouldn't cut it any more so they adapted the design of a failed cruise missile called Alpha that was supposed to fly most of the way at subsonic speed and then fly the last few hundred kms at high altitude at high speed... this was genius because a missile able to fly thousands of kms at supersonic speeds would be enormous... the size of a fighter aircraft or bigger. By having a subsonic carrier and supersonic terminal phase it was like the missile was an aircraft and the payload was a missile on that aircraft... but that aircraft could be launched from a sub or ship.

The result was Kalibr... the domestic name for the export Klub.

Kalibr in the subsonic all the way version is just an upgraded Granat long range subsonic cruise missile (not to be confused with the 7 ton supersonic Granit), the Kalibr with the mach 2.9 terminal model is also Kalibr, and both have much longer flight ranges than their export Klub models.

The subsonic Kalibr likely has a flight range of 2,500km, while the supersonic model probably flys 1,350km or so at subsonic speeds with the last 100-150km at supersonic speeds, or at low level the last 50km at supersonic speeds.

Klub is the same family of weapons but with flight range severely reduced to meet export restrictions.

There are also two other missiles in the family... both ballistic rockets that deliver torpedoes at mach 2.5 to distant submarines... one is for sub launch and the other is for surface ship launch.

The kalibre is high supersonic throughtout its trajectory.That is it flies thousands of kms upto 2500 KMs in high supersonic mode.
It may be 1 km/sec or 2.8 mach.
Thats why there is some confsuion as what constitues klub or Kalibre.

Kalibre is presently not given fro export.It s range is beyond MTCR regulations.

What propulsion allows this missile to fly thousands of kms at mach 3?

Granit weighs 7 tons and is rather large and can only manage about 600km at mach 2.5...

The 3M-80 MOSKIT is high supersonic , quick reaction missile.It is now deployed in all Russian missile ships whether small or big.

No it isn't deployed widely. It was on the Sovremmeny class destroyers and a few light patrol missile boats. In its original version its range was 120km, though its max height was 300m and for the rest of the flight it flew at less than 7m above the water. In the improved upgraded model it had a range of about 300km. The original model weighed about 4.5 tons.

It is being replaced by Onyx.

The other thing is UKSK is now basically promoted as export launcher because Russian Navy is NOT showing interest in it.
The reasons have been discussed here.

Name one new Russian surface ship without UKSK.

All the Corvettes and Frigates will have them and the destroyers too.

It is part of the upgrade for the Kirov class ships with the 20 vertical Granit launchers being replaced with 10 UKSK launcher bins (ie 80 tubes).

The Oscar class vessels are having their Granit tubes refitted for UKSK tubes, and I suspect the Slava upgrade will result in the Vulkan tubes being removed and replaced with angled UKSK launchers.

i THINK uksk is alllowed to be deployed only from Pr 885 first submarine but it may be deployed in various corvettes under construction now.

Onyx outperforms Moskit in every parameter, Granit is out of production, Vulkan is not standard and old... the only option is UKSK launcher bins.

For now with Kalibr and Onyx, but later to add the Zirconium hypersonic missile.

UKSK is being exported because it is the only new cruise missile launcher they will have in service soon.

By all means share these negative effects with the rest of us.

AFAIK the Russians don't have a don't ask don't tell policy when it comes to nuclear weapons on board, so that wont be a problem.

Otherwise having one dedicated launcher means standardisation of launchers... the only moving parts are roof hatches so there is very little to go wrong with no ammo hoists or ammo handlers to load missiles... all are ready to go.

Plus being universal launchers a range of weapons can be loaded to tailor the capabilities of the ships.

Where previously a ship might have anti sub missiles or anti ship missiles now they can have a mix of weapons in larger numbers ready to fire with the addition of land attack, which was previously not available to the average Russian vessel.

As mentioned UKSK is a universal launcher of land attack, anti ship, and anti submarine cruise missiles. It is not intended for SAMs.

SAMs are mounted in the Redut launchers which will be standard launchers for Naval SAMs, though there is also Shtil-1 launchers in vertical launch systems for export, and Pantsir-S1/Kashtan-M/Palma-Sosna SAMs as well and I presume the Klintok vertical launch system.

Redut uses standard Rif-M (ie S-300 large missiles) but is standardised throughout the navy from corvette to carrier and sub as well... all use the same launcher and also the UKSK launcher too.

The only difference is in the number of launchers each size vessel can carry, with small corvettes with one Redut and one UKSK... meaning up to 32 full sized S-300 sized SAMs or more likely a combination of 9M100 Morfei, Vityaz, and S-400, and likely S-500. For a Corvette perhaps 4 X 250km range S-400 SAMs plus 48 x Vityaz medium range 120km range missiles taking up 16 tubes and the remaining 16 tubes with say 8 Morfei missiles in each, so 128 Morfei short range missiles.

With one UKSK launcher that means say 6 Onyx supersonic anti ship missiles plus 2 anti sub missiles or land attack missiles.

He has a point there TR1

you are confused ,will they use uksk for sams or not?

The UKSK launcher is for anti ship, land attack, and anti sub cruise/ballistic missile weapons only.

In its domestic model it can fire Onyx (which replaces Granit, Vulkan, and Moskit) as the mach 2.5 supersonic anti ship missile with long range (500-700km).

The export model of UKSK wont have Onyx... it will have either Yakhont, or Brahmos depending on the export customer (China will have Yakhont, India will have Brahmos).

The Domestic model can also fire Kalibr a subsonic 2,500km range cruise missile with nuke and conventional payloads with a land attack role.

The Domestic model can also fire the supersonic model of Kalibr that uses a supersonic second stage to attack well defended ships with a mach 2.9 terminal stage.

The Export model has Klub in sub 300km range versions with subsonic all the way and supersonic terminal phase models for both anti ship and land attack purposes.

The Domestic model also has a rocket fired ballistic missile that delivers a torpedo payload at mach 2.5 to targets up to an unknown range in the surface launched models for corvettes to carriers, and also a different missile also with an unknown range in a version of UKSK for submarines.

The Export model also has a rocket fired ballistic missile that delivers a torpedo payload at mach 2.5 to targets up to 40km away in the surface launched models for corvettes to carriers, and also a different missile to 50km range in a version of UKSK for submarines.

Neither the domestic nor the export model is designed to launch SAMs.

They, however, will be compatible with all future land attack, anti ship, and anti sub weapons like the hypersonic Zirconium missile and the Brahmos II.

if they use kastan ciws with its separate missiles ,why then another short range system in launchers?

Kashtan-M will likely be replaced in upgrades on non stealthy vessels by the domestic equivalent of Pantsir-S1.

Using short range lock on after launch 9M100 Morfei missiles as CIWS is rather more stealthy and when used with Duet you get a combination of missiles and guns in a relatively stealthy setup.

I suspect the future of Pantsir-S1 in the navy might depend on the performance of Morfei, but on small patrol boats Pantsir-S1 will continue to be useful as it combines TI and MMW radar and CMW radar to detect targets.

nore granit or vulkan, many missiles will be left behind because of uksk , what a drawback for russian navy whose main and unique assests were exactly those missiles...

Granit is out of production and is largely replaced by Onyx, as is Vulkan.

As you might appreciate the electronics in Onyx is rather more compact and with the use of lighter materials the Onyx is a lighter but still very capable missile. Zirconium uses scramjet propulsion technology to raise speed and range to a new level, while using the sophisticated attack capability of the earlier missiles... as you might imagine the datalinking technology has improved since the early 1980s.

well to sink newest ships you really need a heavy warhed -a 500kg warhead at least , this tiny missiles will not be able to even produce enough damage to disable a warship with prepared crew and good damage control.

Tiny?  9m long and 3 tons is hardly tiny.

The goal is to unify all the anti ship, land attack and anti sub weapons into one launcher that can be fitted to every Russian vessel.

All future missiles of those types will be designed to fit into those launchers.

This means that every Russian vessel will be fully multirole able to hit land, sea surface, and sea sub surface targets with a quick reload at the dock.

It is a tremendous step forward for them... now instead of 5 anti ship missile corvettes and 5 anti sub corvettes and no land attack corvettes because who is going to mount nuclear armed land attack cruise missiles on a corvette in the Soviet Navy they can have 10 corvettes of the same design and when arming them at the dock they can configure the armament to suit the nature of the patrol with a mix of weapon including conventional land attack which was not previously available...

The new launchers are fixed bins with no moving parts like ammo hoists or articulated aiming arms that could fail or need maintainence.

well to sink newest ships you really need a heavy warhed -a 500kg warhead at least , this tiny missiles will not be able to even produce enough damage to disable a warship with prepared crew and good damage control.

The kinetic energy of a 1.5 ton missile with all its fuel burned hitting a ship at over 2 times the speed of sound should do some serious damage even if the warhead does not detonate. In the near future when Zirconium is ready a similar weight missile hitting at mach 5 or mach 6 will result in fragments moving at explosive speeds. (the expansion rate of an exploding grenade produces metal fragments moving at mach 2-3, so 1.5 tons of material moving at twice that speed would be devastating).

More importantly a single Corvette with 8 Onyx or Zirconium missile is very well armed... a Frigate with twice that number even more so.

Kirov class cruisers with 10 UKSK launchers and 80 missiles would be overkill for most targets... especially when you consider every other ship operating with that vessel will also have UKSK launchers as will the subs operating with them too.

The adoption of the UKSK launcher will make training and maintainence easier and cheaper... instead of learning how to use SS-N-22, and SS-N-19, and S-N-12 launchers, plus SS-N-15/16 launchers etc etc there is just one launcher type... one set of sensors to support those launchers... cheaper and easier and also larger production numbers makes production faster and easier.... making smaller numbers of specialised vessels is rather more complex and expensive.

Logistically supporting a larger number of vessels with the same equipment and systems and weapons is much cheaper and simpler... especially for support vessels as fewer types of systems need fewer different types of parts.

He has a point there TR1

Not really. From Corvette up there will actually be rather more missiles carried per vessel and more missiles are always harder to defend against... Harpoon on its own is fairly ordinary... but 6 of them is a real challenge to deal with.

How many Corvettes of the Soviet Navy carried 8 Granits?

How many Frigates carried 16 Granits?

The new Destroyers they are building will likely have 4 UKSK launchers, which means 32 missiles... a Sovremmeny class and a Udaloy class together could carry 8 Moskits and 8 anti sub torpedo carrying SS-N-14s... a new Russian destroyer could carry 8 Onyx missiles, 8 Kalibr anti sub missiles and still have 16 tubes free... the firepower of 4 Soviet Destroyers in terms of its primary armament!

No I don't think there will be a lack of anti ship capability for the Russian Navy with the introduction of the UKSK launchers.

Most importantly just looking at the ship you could know the capability of a Sovremmeny class vessel, but what is the new Destroyer carrying in those tubes?

GarryB wrote:Not really. From Corvette up there will actually be rather more missiles carried per vessel and more missiles are always harder to defend against... Harpoon on its own is fairly ordinary... but 6 of them is a real challenge to deal with.

How many Corvettes of the Soviet Navy carried 8 Granits?

How many Frigates carried 16 Granits?

The new Destroyers they are building will likely have 4 UKSK launchers, which means 32 missiles... a Sovremmeny class and a Udaloy class together could carry 8 Moskits and 8 anti sub torpedo carrying SS-N-14s... a new Russian destroyer could carry 8 Onyx missiles, 8 Kalibr anti sub missiles and still have 16 tubes free... the firepower of 4 Soviet Destroyers in terms of its primary armament!

No I don't think there will be a lack of anti ship capability for the Russian Navy with the introduction of the UKSK launchers.

Most importantly just looking at the ship you could know the capability of a Sovremmeny class vessel, but what is the new Destroyer carrying in those tubes?

No, I agree with all that, I'm simply saying that indeed the new missiles have smaller payloads and against larger ships this may be problematic.
Nothing busts a vessel quite like the Vulkan or Granit

Nothing busts a vessel quite like the Vulkan or Granit

I would be inclined to agree normally, but the real difference between Granit and Vulkan is Vulcan was made of more modern materials and was lighter than Granit... things like Titanium armour were used instead of steel armour to protect the missile from fragmentation warheads and 20mm cannon shells.

Onyx has taken the reduced weight even further, but a major change would be the shift in propulsion to ramjet which means a smaller lighter more compact weapon.

The end result will be that the Vulkan and Granit certainly hit harder but I rather doubt the difference would be enormous as Vulkan and Granit were more fuel and propulsion which made them big and heavy, while the smaller and lighter Onyx is just more efficient.

Zirconium will be twice as fast and the old energy equals mass times the square of speed means twice as fast means 2 to the power of 2 times more energy.

For many light corvette like targets a Granit would vapourise them, and while I agree against a Carrier one Onyx would not sink it you are not going to just use one... unless it is a nuke.

The ships that employ the UKSK never employed weapons the size and potency of the Vulkan and Granit. UKSK gives a massive boost in fleet capability through Yakhont and Kalibr.

Not quite... the introduction of the UKSK launcher for every ship from Corvette to Carrier and all non SSBN subs actually means that the Russian fleet will be deploying 100 times more supersonic anti ship missiles than they did before... it is pretty much turning Onyx and Zirconium into Harpoon in the sense that Harpoon was not a super weapon but with numbers it would be effective.

Onyx and Zirconium are everything Vulkan and Granit were but now in Harpoon deployment numbers...

As to his "warhead size" argument, even stupider. 250kg warhead on a Yakhont will WRECK a non carrier combatant. Mission kill easily.

New explosives are more powerful than older explosive compounds... not to mention new EW systems fitted to some missiles are more likely to lead to multiple hits.

Explosive power is certainly one thing, but the real killer of ships is not HE... it is fire.

compared to other ship classes -[b]instead of 1000 small onyx missiles ,100 very potent granits with 1000km range,...unless they plan bigger uksk for cruisers.

Small Onyx missiles? 3 tons and 9m long is hardly small... the two main reasons it is smaller and lighter than Granit is that it trades the 750kg warhead for a 250kg one but also it is rather more fuel efficient and burns rather less fuel. This means that by the time the Granit gets to its target and has burned off its fuel it will not be that much heavier if at all.

composite into iron superstructure is tiny, and getting that close to todays ships whithout detection -good luck man

Exocet never should have gotten any where near Sheffield either... Sea Dart and Sea Wolf should have offered total protection... but they didn't work as advertised in a real combat situation... surprise surprise.

If Onyx has a range of 300km then there would be no need for Yakhont... which does have a range of 300km and was designed for export only.

Onyx is believed to have a range of 500-700km depending on the source.

The land attack and anti ship versions of Klub for export have sub 300km ranges.

The cruise missile they are based upon... Kalibr, has a range of 2,500km in the land attack model and also likely in the anti ship model too.

The supersonic Klub for domestic use may have a range of up to 1,500km.