NationStates Jolt Archive

Researchers, long in their quest for the ultimate cheap anti-ship missile, found the answer not in their labs, but in the schematics for a Russian made missile, the 3M82 Moskit, known to most as the SS-N-2 Sunburn. Several of the missiles were purchased more than a year ago, and were tested on decomissioned vessels.

The results of these tests were so exactly what they were looking for that the researchers were comissioned to recreate the Moskit in a new Sigman made missile. The resulting missile, the SOSKM-1 Tsunami, has a higher performance than the Moskit, and enhances the overall destructive power of the original design.

The Tsunami sports a more streamlined body, smaller and capable of higher overall speeds. The smaller size and higher speed make this missile even harder to knock down than it's older sibling.

WARHEAD
750 LB. CONVENTIONAL OR 200 KILOTON NUCLEAR
RANGE
70 MILES
WING SPAN
5.6 FEET
BODY DIA.
2.5 FEET
LENGTH
21.9 FEET
WEIGHT
6,320 POUNDS
ENGINE
INTEGRATED ROCKET BOOSTER RAMJET SUSTAINER
GUIDANCE
ACTIVE RADAR HOMING SEA SKIMMER
SPEED
MACH 2.7 AT SEA LEVEL

The missile is launched from a naval vessel, coastal defence, or specially equipped airplane, travel most of the way at a higher altitude, and then skims at just 10 feet above the water, underneath nearly all modern naval based radar systems. At the speed that it attains (over 1,500 mph), most point defences have an short period of time to react. As a final measure of reaching it's target, the Tsunami, like the Moskit, moves several feet up in a violent maneuver to throw off tracking systems, a second before it impacts.

This weapon has the capability of ripping a gaping whole in nearly all modern vessels, it's 750 lbs of explosive shredding through armor easily. If the missile is carrying the 200 kiloton warhead, armor is the least of the Tsunami's target's worries.

These weapons are being built as fast as possible, for use in Sigma Octavus' upcoming role in Operation: Hellfire. It is projected that only around 30 of these missiles will be operational by then.

After the conflict, these missiles will possibly be up for sale to whichever nations our government deams to be of no immediate threat to our well being, namely allies and nations with peaceful backgrounds.

*snicker*

You are aware that the Sunburn is a total piece of crap, right?

OOC: Probably because they were huge, these are much smaller. Also, this is one of those threads that mainly is just documentation that we have them. To get around arguments of "You don't have those!".

OOC: Actually, this is a bit much. This is essentially trying to be a copy of the Yakhont. With that warhead, and if that range is for a low-only flight profile, it's at least twice as far as it should be - the missile's too small for the engine and fuel needed to get the missile going that far at that speed, especially if it's keeping that up the entire flight. And either way, the flight altitude is too low. 5-7m is about the minimum terminal altitude for such a missile, and all such weapons cruise at an altitude of at least 15-20m for most of the flight, going much higher (thousands of meters) if they want to be able to go more than 80 miles or so.

Also, 1.5 seconds reaction time is not correct. While some older CIWS (Phalanx) will only have 1.5-2 seconds while it's in effective range, most destroyers will be able to detect it over 30 seconds before impact, giving a chance to engage with short and medium range SAMs. Also, short range missiles like the RAM will be able to engage 10 seconds before impact, and more modern CIWS might have 3-5 seconds to engage.

OOC: Yeah, I was just trying to see if I could get the range past some of you people...damn number freaks, and that timing was on my own math, which isn't very good. Changed some things, added the word cheapest where needed. It really is going to be one of the few cheap mass produced weapons we deploy.

Congratulations, you are the first n00k n00b to come into one of my threads in over four months. Learn how the game works. And please don't post in my thread anymore.

If you intend for it to be air-launched against a carrier group, keep in mind that any decent radar system (especially in II) will be able to see it from quite a long ways away, much further than 120 miles.

Well this is quite a good weapon, but since it's essentially a copy of a Russian missile it isnt "The Ultimate Anti-Naval Missile". There isnt really such a thing as "The Ultimate Anti-Naval Missile" in all honesty. You can make missiles that carry more explosive over a longer range faster, but they're huge and easy to see. You can make missile fly high and gain extra speed or you can make them fly low and they arent detected as quickly (btw you cant fly under a radar per se... you can fly under the radar "bubble" which emerges at long range because of the curvature of the earth, greatly reducing the enemy's interception window). So yeah, overall this is a nice cheap missile to be used in large numbers, but it isnt "ultimate".

*snicker*

You are aware that the Sunburn is a total piece of crap, right?IIRC, a single Russian destroyer armed with the Sunburn missile once worried the U.S. so much they sent an entire U.S. carrier battle group to keep close tabs on it. Of course, I could be thinking of a different missile, but Russian weapons systems are generally a full decade ahead of their U.S. counterparts.

Yes, it was a Sunburn-armed Sovremenny that caused all that ruckus. You see, the US hadn't bothered to design a system capable of countering the missile. The European PAAMS stands a decent chance though, and with the ESSM and some upgrades, AEGIS could counter it as well.
Still, it has a good shot of getting through most defenses, so it is a rather good missile - just short ranged.

As far as technology goes, russian missile technology has tended to be ahead of western weapons, at least in the design part. However, it has been shown that they were also a good decade or two behind the west in electronics, which has hindered both missiles and their launching platforms quite a bit. One of the reasons behind the Soviet collapse was that they realized that they'd never be able to catch up in that critical area.