Author: Hai Dongqing
When it comes to high-powered anti-ship missiles during the Cold War, many people will first think of the Soviet Union's supersonic anti-aircraft carrier professional households, from the SS-N-22 "White Grasshopper" that followed the Introduction of the Modern-class destroyer into China and is well known by a generation of Chinese military enthusiasts, to the SS-N-12 "Basalt" of the Glory-class cruiser and the Kiev-class aircraft carrier, and then to the anti-aircraft carrier blade AS-6 "King Fish" of the Tu-22M bomber. Even the SS-N-19 Granite, which is famous for its nuclear-powered cruisers of the Tyrannosaurus Rex Kirov class at sea. Compared with the Western "Harpoon", "Flying Fish", "Alto Mart", which weigh only 600-700kg, the Soviet Union's missiles with a self-weight of 4-7 tons are behemoths, each of which is a lingering nightmare of the NATO Navy, reflecting the violent aesthetics of the fighting nation.
▲ Soviet SS-N-19 "granite" anti-ship missile, self-weight of about 7 tons, maximum speed of Mach 2.5, warhead weight of 750kg, maximum range of 550km, can be said to be a veritable aircraft carrier killer, NATO gave it the nickname "ShipWreck", which shows the West's fear of it.
However, in the Soviet Navy, there is another missile, its power is even greater than "basalt" and "granite", which can be called the most powerful anti-ship missile of the Cold War, and until the advent of China's Dongfeng Express Empowerment Dafa, no anti-ship missile can shake its maximum power throne (of course, the power here only considers the conventional warhead, and the anti-ship missile of the nuclear warhead is not mentioned).
The most interesting thing is that this missile is not unpopular for military enthusiasts, and it can almost be said to be familiar, but the vast majority of people will not associate this thing with anti-ship missiles, as long as they hear its name, most people's first reaction must be "huh?" Is it actually it? This missile is the Soviet SS-N-14 "Quartz" anti-submarine missile, which is famous for being equipped with the 1155 Dreadnought-class destroyer.
▲ 1155 Dreadnought class anti-submarine destroyer, in the Soviet Navy is also a good partner of the Modern class destroyer, mainly undertaking anti-submarine tasks, pay attention to its two Tianzi-shaped quadrant missile launchers full of Russian violent aesthetics, which is used to launch SS-N-14 "quartz" anti-submarine missiles.
The "Quartz" anti-submarine missile is famous for being equipped with Dreadnought-class destroyers, in fact, the missile is also equipped with 1135 Krivak-class frigates, 1134A Kresta-class cruisers, 1134B Kara-class cruisers and many other warships, which can be said to be one of the star missiles of the Soviet Navy in the Cold War. Friends who know a little about this missile should know that "quartz" is actually an anti-submarine/anti-ship dual-purpose missile, but its job is anti-submarine, which is why many people will subconsciously ignore it when it comes to high-power anti-ship missiles, and everyone's subconscious it is an anti-submarine missile, but ignores its anti-ship capability.
▲ 1134B Kara-class anti-submarine cruiser equipped with a quadripart field zigzag launcher and "quartz" anti-submarine missile.
Why is it said that the power of the "quartz" missile anti-ship is greater than that of the "granite" and other anti-aircraft carrier professionals? This has to start from its bullet kick structure, the "quartz" anti-submarine missile is actually a "stitch monster" weapon, full of Russian simple and crude, its essence is to use an SS-N-9 "Malachite" anti-ship missile body, and then directly hang a torpedo. This kind of torpedo-mounted anti-submarine missile, compared with the American "Aslok" method of connecting torpedoes on the warhead, the difficulty of developing the projectile structure is greatly reduced, but the disadvantage is that the volume is huge, especially the diameter of the projectile is large, so the emerging anti-submarine missiles are basically "Aslok" head tandem torpedo type, even Russia's newly researched anti-submarine missiles are the same.
▲ "Quartz" anti-submarine missile, you can clearly see that its structure is an anti-ship missile under a torpedo, simple and rude.
Moreover, the simple and rough "quartz" anti-submarine missile can be far more than this, the anti-submarine missiles of other countries are basically equipped with a 324mm diameter torpedo, but for the fighting nation, the 324mm torpedo is really nothing to say, so the "quartz" anti-submarine missile chose to hang a 533mm diameter torpedo, no matter what you "Los Angeles" and "Ohio", a shot will blow you up twice.
▲ The retired Spruance-class destroyers of the US army were targeted by 533mm torpedoes, unlike the World War II torpedoes that can only attack the sideboard of the ship, the modern 533mm torpedo can drill under the ship and blow up the keel, making the 8,000-ton giant ship break into two pieces on the spot, leaving only half of the section still floating on the water.
As we mentioned earlier, the "Quartz" anti-submarine missile is a "Malachite" anti-ship missile hanging a 533mm torpedo, this "Malachite" anti-ship missile may know less people, its main equipment is 1234 Nanuchka class large missile boat, weighing about 2.9 tons, although it is a subsonic anti-ship missile, but the warhead weighs 500kg, which is also a large man full of Russian violent aesthetic style.
▲ The Nanuchica-class missile boats, with a displacement of more than 600 tons, are already in the dividing line between boats and ships, and their two glyph-shaped triple launchers for launching "Malachite" missiles are also full of Russian style.
Due to the large size of the "quartz" anti-submarine missile, several types of warships equipped with "quartz", even if it is a cruiser of 10,000 tons, there is no place to install anti-ship missiles (of course, this is also related to the huge size of soviet anti-ship missiles), so the Soviet Navy requires that "quartz" anti-submarine missiles must have the ability to part-time anti-ship for anti-submarine ship self-defense. Therefore, the "Quartz" missile did not cancel the anti-ship seeker of the "Malachite" missile, and did not cancel the 500kg warhead, that is to say, when the "Quartz" missile is used for anti-ship, it will carry a 500kg anti-ship warhead and a 533mm diameter heavy torpedo to hit the enemy warship, and the resulting destructive force, even if it is as strong as the "Granite" missile, has to be feared for three points.
▲ The Nanuchka-class missile boat is loading the "Malachite" anti-ship missile, which is 500kg warhead of this missile, which is already very powerful, plus a 533mm heavy torpedo is even more unimaginable.
In addition to carrying a torpedo to directly hit the enemy ship, the "quartz" missile may also have another attack mode, that is, "split action", that is, after the enemy ship enters the torpedo range, it drops the torpedo, and then the "Malachite" missile and the 533mm attack the target independently. Although there is no data to confirm that the "quartz" missile can do this, but considering that its projectile body and torpedo have independent seekers, and the anti-submarine missile itself is used to throw torpedoes, the "quartz" missile to achieve "split action" to attack surface warships is at most a programming problem. In short, no matter which attack mode is adopted, the 533mm torpedo + 500kg warhead is nothing less than a nightmare for how to beat the battleship, and the Western warships should be glad that the range of the "Quartz" missile is only 50km, so the anti-ship capability can only be regarded as part-time and emergency at best, otherwise the sword of Damocles hanging above their heads will be more.