Lu Yue Dragon Ball Wu Duanduan
Ships play a vital role in naval warfare. They are capable of controlling sea areas, supporting land warfare, countering enemy naval forces, and intercepting enemy threats. Ships play strategic, tactical and support functions in naval warfare, and are an important part of maintaining national maritime security and protecting national interests.
Therefore, in the case of defending one's own ships from enemy attacks, a devastating attack on an enemy ship becomes a crucial part of naval warfare. Missiles are capable of inflicting devastating damage on warships in naval battles and even sinking entire ships. Its high speed and long range make the missile capable of quickly hitting targets and destroying warships. Missiles have a variety of attack methods, including surface strikes, air strikes, and submarine launches. This allows the missile to be more flexible and adaptable to the battlefield environment. In modern warfare, ships have also taken a variety of measures to protect themselves against missile threats.
To sum up, the threat of missiles to ships should not be underestimated. There are abundant cases in history of missile attacks on ships, but how can we maximize the benefits of missiles on the battlefield? How can we use missiles to inflict a fatal blow on enemy ships in the most concise and robust way? The following will be analyzed from three examples of missile attacks in different periods.
A battleship that is conducting a fire attack with missiles
The precedent of guided weapons - "Fritz"-X
"Fritz"-X is an airborne guided bomb developed by Nazi Germany in World War II, which is one of the first guided weapons in the world to be put into use.
The Fritz-X is an air-delivered anti-ship and land-attack weapon with a radio guidance system and a combined control wing with a bullet-tail structure in a circular structure. After the "Fritz"-X was thrown by the aircraft, the operator on the aircraft carried out remote control guidance by radio signals. The warhead carries 400kg of explosives and has high penetration and destructive capabilities.
The most notable example of this was the successful destruction by the Luftwaffe of the Italian battleship Roma through the Fritz-X in the Battle of Taranto on 9 September 1943. This is the first time in history that a guided weapon was used to destroy a warship.
During the naval battle with the British, the "Fritz"-X pierced the seven decks of the Uganda like a tin foil, bringing the cruiser to a halt. In this battle, 16 sailors of the Uganda were killed, and the KG/100 bomber squadron was awarded the "Cross" for the successful defeat of the target.
The design of the "Fritz"-X is based on the PC-1400 armor-piercing shell, the bomb is dropped from a height of 5-6 kilometers, and the "Fritz"-X weighing 1570 kg will hit ground or sea targets at high speed beyond the speed of sound, like a heavy punch from the sky to a ship. This led to the fact that the bomb often penetrated the entire hull and exploded in the water. In the history of the German superbomb, the Fritz-X guided bomb, capable of penetrating seven layers of steel deck, is a testament to significant superiority and strength.
In general, the "Fritz"-X guided bomb laid a certain foundation for the later development of guided weapons, and its powerful penetrating ability is a terrifying existence for sea surface ships.
Guided bombs of the German army during World War II - "Fritz"-X
舰艇"开罐器"——Kshach
The KSShch anti-ship missile was the first ship-based missile to equip troops in the former Soviet Union and is considered the world's first ship-based anti-ship missile to be mass-produced and become the main ship-based weapon, which is powered by the Yak-25 jet fighter. However, the take-off weight of the Yak-25 jet fighter, which was roughly equivalent to the launch weight of the KSShch, was too large and bulky, and combined with the analysis of combat losses during World War II, the Soviet designers were not convinced at first that it would have the effect of disabling or even destroying enemy cruisers. To do this, Soviet designers developed a special and complex offensive scheme for it: the KSShch anti-ship missile dives at an angle with the aim of entering the water at a distance of 30-40 meters from the side of the enemy ship. The detachable warhead continues its movement under water, hitting targets below the waterline.
With the advance of time, the damage caused by the KSShch gradually attracted the attention of the public, "the missile entered along the portboard, cut it like a can opener and stuck in the area of the bow 130-mm gun." At the same time, the dock mast fell on one side, and the bridge with a control tower and another 130-mm cannon fell on the other. Without shooting the flight of a rocket, no one would have believed that such a thing could be carried out on a ship with one missile or even an inert warhead. "The excerpt is reproduced over and over again in articles dedicated to the KSShch missile, and the story of" can opener "sounds impressive.
"I'm afraid" —SM-6D
In the new century, missiles have been developed to the point where they are capable of sinking a ship with kinetic energy, and the SM-6 Block I anti-aircraft missile is a typical example. The SM-6 Block I is the only truly multi-purpose missile known to be in service, capable of anti-aircraft, anti-ballistic missile, and anti-ship, and anti-aircraft missiles have never been considered a substitute for anti-ship weapons, as have their smaller warheads and effectiveness in firing at naval targets. On January 18, 2016, the USS John Paul Jones DDG-53, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, launched an SM-6 Block I missile, hitting the USS Ruben James missile frigate anchored at the U.S. Navy's Pacific missile test range off the coast of Hawaii, and creating a hole in it underwater, causing it to sink.
As for how a missile with a warhead of 64 kg can sink an entire frigate, there are different opinions, but the assessment of its reliability is beyond doubt. In modern conditions, due to the huge size of the sea target, the kinetic energy reserves of the ammunition itself are not able to cause noticeable damage to the ship, although the SM-6 Block I missile was not the first to hit the "Ruben James", but its results in sinking the frigate were also recognized and admired by experts.
“约翰·保罗·琼斯”号（USS John Paul Jones DDG-53）搭载的SM-6 Block I导弹