India’s Anti-Ship Cruise Missile Arsenal: Deadly Diversity
Indian Navy has 5 different modern anti-ship missiles in service today from 4 different countries with very different performance parameters. Indian armed forces are big on variety, and they bring in 5 of the most advanced anti-ship missiles used worldwide with a bunch of local options being developed to supplant or supplement them going forward. If you work in the supply chain industry, you will ask about economies of scale and high costs. The thing is, while costly it brings in a unique capability where the Indians have so many options, they can fine tune mission packages based on enemy vessels. Adversary is going to have a tough time countering so many potential munitions.
What is an Anti-Ship Cruise Missile?
Before we dive into mission packaging, let us discuss what an anti-ship missile is. As the name suggests, an AShM is launched from a standoff range towards a naval target. It is launched towards a target in the general direction with rough estimates of range, target signatures and location. Post launch, the missile flies towards the target following one of two trajectories below.
1. High — Low profile: Post launch from ship or submarine platform, the missile climbs to its optimal altitude for generally 2/3rds of the distance to target. It is followed by a dive to a wave top level of 5–10 m for the remaining distance. This profile allows for the max range, which is the range you see when looking at missiles online.
2. Low — Low profile: Post launch from ship or submarine platform the missile flies the entire way at very low level to the target. Generally, the range in this profile is between 40% to 50% of maximum advertised range if the flight profile is not clarified.
There are other options too, modern missiles offer either pop-up top attack on the target which can expose a missile to the target’s CIWS or other onboard gun systems but cause super structure damage. Or, the missile can stay at wave top altitude and hit the hull causing more internal damage. Depending on the target, you can use either flight profiles or final approach profiles or a mix of all to create maximum mayhem.
Mission Packaging
Mission packaging is a difficult task, you need to study about the enemy’s defense and plan a load out to achieve mission success. The process is very complicated and requires a lot of information and intelligence to carry out. The rough beats of the process are as follows.
1. In this case what kind of SAMs, jamming, ESM and decoys do enemy surface vessels have.
2. Identify gaps in defenses (for eg. only short-range SAM, no short-range SAM, very high minimum engagement range for SAM, weak or no CIWS etc.)
3. Select munitions based on the target (for eg. In case of single vessel with short range SAM, select an Anti-Ship missile with higher low level final approach range, incase of a flotilla with more potent ships, select a missile with longer low-low range to allow for platforms to launch and exit without detection).
4. Select numbers needed to break through defenses (rule of thumb atleast 8 AShMs per modern naval combatant).
5. Select Archers i.e. launch platforms and their numbers.
6. Plan mission path.
7. Plan mission contingencies.
India’s Current Anti-Ship Cruise Missile Arsenal
BrahMos
Developed as an Indo-Russian joint venture, this missile was interestingly based on the P-800 with work shared between the two countries. India has developed and tested guidance, seeker, and propulsion locally which means they can carry on without Russian support in current environment. What is interesting to me is that P-800 can hit targets 800 km away while sharing exact same dimensions and metrics as BrahMos. India’s advertised tested range for this missile is 450–500 km, means there is a massive scope for growth in performance over current numbers. Generally, this just needs development and validation of software and hardware at that range which is relatively easy to do if not done already.
It can carry a 200 -300 kg warhead at Mach 2.8 to Mach 3 speed towards the target. Modern SAM systems have only recently gained ability to reliably intercept subsonic missiles (eg Ukraine). Supersonic ones bring far lower reaction times meaning while some could be intercepted, a few will certainly break through. Given their 200 km low level range, these missiles are best suited against top-of-the-line surface vessels. The ability to launch from so many platforms allows for tight and precise mission packaging.
Klub
Klub is a very interesting missile by itself. The missile has subsonic cruise phase which allows for a longer range while also having a Mach 3 terminal phase with its 200 kg warhead. It can be launched from surface and sub-surface vessels in Indian service. I am not sure if India was able to get the non-MTCR range for these after becoming part of the group and hence the ranges listed below are those for export variants.
Low cruise speeds mean this missile spends a lot of time in the air making it easier to intercept and thus these missiles are better suited for second line vessels like older destroyers and frigates. Planners need to ensure that the wave top range at Mach 3 needs to be higher than SAM ranges or very close to minimize chance of shoot down.
The missiles below are all subsonic and relatively easy to intercept. Intercept-ability is made worse by their relatively low ranges (for older Kh-35s and Exocet). Their low ranges make it difficult for the launch platform to stay at a standoff distance during launch (except Kh-35U and Harpoons). But these are still very useful against OPV, corvettes, or older frigate class vessels. There are a few other uses too, listed below.
1. To fill in bulk of mass attacks with BrahMos/Klub and make it difficult to intercept BrahMos/Klub.
2. Their flight patterns could be better suited for a particular SAM/CIWS system on a naval vessel.
3. Their seekers could have specific modes or jamming resistance making it easier to hunt a particular target.
4. It is the closest missile to the adversary.
Kh-35: 145 kg warhead
Harpoon: 200 kg warhead
Exocet: 160 kg warhead
Future of Indian Anti-Ship Missile Arsenal
Following is a list of new missiles in development in India and some special mentions that interest me. BrahMos is here to stay and new variants with new seekers are being developed to further increase the number of platforms that can deploy it. These new missiles are for niche roles for particular platforms to increase the number of options.
- BrahMos NG: Miniaturized BrahMos for other IAF and IN air platforms or corvette level vessels will be a game changer allowing more platforms to deploy the missile.
- BrahMos 2: Hypersonics are the new buzz word in missiles, especially due to Zircon. While SAM systems mature to reliably intercept supersonic missiles, the next step is to go hypersonic.
- NASM-SR: Helicopter launched 55 km subsonic AShM can help provide under armed corvettes or aircraft carriers with offensive capability on their helicopters. The warhead is large at 380 kg, smaller warhead can help the missile go farther.
- NASM-MR: This missile will be a subsonic surface and air launched option for Indian vessels slotting beneath BrahMos thus giving the commanders a cheaper option to engage targets vs BrahMos. At 150 kg, its warhead is small but ~300 km range is in line with other subsonic offerings India has.
- Nirbhay: Called India’s Tomahawk, this 1,500 km subsonic missile with a 200–300 kg warhead needs a software and sensor update which I am pretty sure DRDO is already working on for AShM role. Its massive loiter capability allows for creative mission flight plans to the target to minimize launch platform exposure.
- SMART: You will say that this is an ASW weapon. It can drop its torpedo near an adversary, thereby reducing the window to intercept and creating a new worry. Another thing is, using SMART in conjunction with BrahMos can overload a crew with managing so many threats in one attack.
About Writer: Epsilon
The writer has been writings about mil-topics on their website battlemachines.org and Facebook page Battle Machines. For more India associated articles from the writer visit battlemachines.org or heck out this article from them.
https://battlemachines.org/2015/06/27/arjun-indias-first-mbt/
