The effective launch of the rocket is recorded by camera flashes, and nothing is known about its hitting the target ship. The paradox has a simple explanation: no sane observer would risk being near a target.
It will take long hours before the sailors get to the “victim” placed in the open sea (a hundred kilometers from the launch site) and take some measurements. After that, the target, a rusty "galosh", due to its dilapidated state, the consequences of being hit by anti-ship missiles and the absence of any struggle for its survivability, will be sentenced to flooding on the spot.
As a result, “legends” are born about the incredible destructive power of the anti-ship missile system, capable of “knocking down the superstructure” and “cutting the destroyer along”.
But what are the real consequences of anti-ship missiles hitting ships? About this - another analysis of combat damage.
Broken armor of the cruiser "Nakhimov"
In June 1961, the Nakhimov was towed from the Sevastopol Bay 45-50 miles towards Odessa and anchored. From a distance of 72 km, the Prosorylivy rocket ship launched an inert KSShch missile at Nakhimov. The rocket hit the middle part of the cruiser on the surface of the side and made a hole in the form of a figure eight with an area of about 15 m2. The missile warhead pierced the cruiser through and made a round hole with an area of about 8 m2 in the opposite side of the ship. The bottom edge of the hole was 40 cm below the waterline. The rocket engine exploded in the cruiser hull, resulting in a fire on the ship.
A detailed description of the damage follows.
"The missile hit the junction of the spardeck and the side of the cruiser. At the point of impact, a hole in the form of an inverted figure eight with a total area of about 15 m2 was formed. Most of the hole fell on the spardek, the smaller one on the side. The hole in the spardeck belonged to the main engine, in The missile "pierced" the cruiser from side to side and left the starboard side of the cruiser just under the foremast. The exit hole was an almost circular hole with an area of about 8 m2. The lower cut of the hole turned out to be 30-35 cm below the waterline, and while the ships of the emergency rescue service reached the cruiser, he managed to take in about 1600 t of seawater … In addition, the remains of kerosene spilled over the cruiser, and this caused a fire that was extinguished for about 12 hours."
Do you find any contradictions here? And they are.
Subsonic "soft" ammunition (sand enclosed in a light metal shell), unexpectedly for itself, flew through the ship's hull (and this is not less than 20 meters, diagonally, through all bulkheads) and, upon meeting at a large angle, broke through the flooring of the lower armor decks (50 mm). Then he easily overcame the armor belt (100 mm of armor), leaving a round hole in it with an area of 8 square meters. meters, whose lower edge was 30-40 cm BELOW the waterline.
Question one: are there examples in the history of naval battles of how much faster (Mach 2) and durable (98% of the mass - metal) armor-piercing shells inflicted similar damage? Punch through 150 mm of armor at an angle, not counting the numerous bulkheads and deck decks made of structural steel.
The second question: while the rescuers reached the cruiser, 1600 tons of water managed to enter it. That inevitably caused the roll, which no one straightened by counter-flooding of the compartments on the opposite side - due to the lack of a crew on the “Nakhimov”. And the rescuers-firefighters who arrived in the first hours had no time for this.
Geometric problem for younger students.
The KSShch missile hit the cruiser in the area of the 62nd frame (“just under the foremast”) and immediately fell apart due to its layout into two parts (warhead and engine).
In the hull, in the area of the foremast, the air ducts of the boilers passed. Where, obviously, the KSSH engine flew in. From there - the shortest way to the bottom. Breaking through the casing of the air duct, penetrating into the mine and finally losing energy, he fell on the grate and exploded. The explosion damaged the double bottom, which was no longer used for storing fuel oil.
Water poured into the resulting hole. Using the formula Q = 3600 * μ * f * [root of (2qH)], you can calculate the flow of water. Assuming the hydrostatic head is calculated for a depth of 6 meters, the radius of the hole is only 5 cm, and the coefficient. permeability (mu) for 0.6, we get an impressive 240 tons of water per hour!
A roll appeared, which was constantly increasing. The ship sank deeper and deeper into the water and fell to one side.
As a result, the lower edge of the outlet from the inert warhead of the rocket, which was originally ABOVE the waterline, by the time the rescuers arrived, had time to submerge 30 centimeters under the water.
The missile did not penetrate either the armored deck or the Nakhimov's armor belt. She flew higher through the lightweight hull structures. The question of the impact of anti-ship missiles on armor remained open.
If you do not agree that everything was exactly like that, then the shooting at “Nakhimov” was carried out in non-Euclidean space. Where the inflow of 1600 tons of seawater does not cause a roll and an increase in the ship's draft.
It is worth noting that the KSShch rocket, due to the technologies of the 1950s, possessed exorbitant mass and dimensions, therefore, even without a warhead, it could cause a strong fire and cause serious damage. The appearance of such missiles in our time is excluded - a single, large target with a large EPR is too vulnerable when breaking through the air defense line.
As for the target itself, the layout and booking scheme of the cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov" were created for other types of threats and turned out to be ineffective in the era of missile weapons.
Scandal at the exercises of the Pacific Fleet
The command-staff exercises of the Pacific Fleet, which took place in September 2011, made a depressing impression on Kamchatka journalists. According to one version, none of the missiles fired could hit the target. Quite an expected result. The Redoubt coastal defense complex was put into service in 1966 and, by now, the weapon has completely exhausted its resource.
The next day, there was a "analysis of the jaundice" from representatives of the patriotic media, in which all previous statements about the failure of the exercises were refuted. The missiles have successfully completed their flight mission. Proof - photographs of targets.
But the flywheel of the sensation has already been spun. The number of questions has not decreased. Observers noted the following oddities in this story:
Firstly, the negligible impact of ammunition on the design of targets. The P-35 missile of the Redut complex belongs to the family of super-heavy Soviet anti-ship missiles. With a length of ten meters and a launch weight of 4.5 tons, it is twice as heavy as the popular "Caliber" and 8 times as heavy as any modern Western anti-ship missile!
Even being equipped with an inert warhead, this supersonic "club", logically, should demolish everything in its path, causing irreversible damage to the structure. Accompanied by the ignition of the punched target from the torch of the operating anti-ship missile engine and a sharp pressure jump inside the target body.
In reality, on the PKZ-35 floating barracks used as a target, even the glass blocks of the windows, which were in the immediate vicinity of the missile hit points, survived.
The second target looked even more paradoxical - the PZhK-3 fire boat, which, according to the official version, was knocked down by the setting. In the first photo, nothing is visible in the dark. In the second one, taken in the afternoon, the tiny boat does not bear any traces of missile hits.
Also, observers were confused by the time factor. According to official data, the shooting took place on the night of September 17th. The target was located two hundred kilometers from the coast. In the photographs presented for refutation, dated September 17, a target with traces of an anti-ship missile hit was already on the background of the coast. How, in a matter of hours, the sailors managed to get to the place of execution of the PZK-35, take it in tow and drag it to Avacha Bay. In this case, the non-self-propelled barracks had to move across the ocean at the speed of the Shkval cavitating torpedo.
If there were no hits in reality, then everything is clear, no questions asked.
It is much more surprising if, in spite of the slander, the missiles did hit the targets. The nature of the damage inflicted contradicts the legends of the great destructive power of the anti-ship missile system.
Even without warheads, the blows of multi-ton supersonic blanks were supposed to cut the boat and the floating barracks in half. It is these horror stories that tell about the tests of the first subsonic anti-ship missiles, supposedly cutting the destroyer along and leaving a hole with an area of 55 sq. m. in the armor of the unfinished battleship "Stalingrad".
Missile hit "Vereshchagino"
A curious incident occurred on April 24, 2000. During the firing practice, the 854th coastal missile regiment of the Black Sea Fleet "covered" the Ukrainian motor ship "Vereshchagino", which was performing a charter flight on the Skadovsk - Istanbul route.
Despite the timely notification, the cargo-passenger ship, for an unknown reason, ignored the message and, having missed 13 ships of the combat escort, entered the area closed to navigation.
The missile seeker did not know the difference between a warship and a civilian vessel. Released from Cape Chersonesos, the P-35 immediately aimed at a radio-contrast object and successfully hit the target. Exactly! The results of the P-35 hitting the superstructure is evidenced by a picture with a picturesque hole corresponding to the contours of the rocket. It remains to add that the small ship survived and safely reached Skadovsk on its own. The fire that began was extinguished by the crew. The only victim was the third mechanic V. Ponomarenko, who was urgently taken to the hospital of the Black Sea Fleet.
Attack by coordinated air and navy forces
Finally, a photo report from the international exercises RIMPAC 2010. Purely for aesthetic pleasure.
An old helicopter carrier "New Orleans" (of the "Iwo Jima" type, 1968) was used as a target. The length of its hull was 182 meters, the width of the flight deck was 26 meters, the overall dimensions corresponded to a missile cruiser of the Cold War era.
Seven Harpoon anti-ship missiles hit New Orleans. Following, B-52 bombers struck at it, hitting the helicopter carrier with five 900-kg GBU-10 guided bombs. Finally, the doomed ship was attacked by the Australian frigate "Warramunga", which stuck seventy 127 mm shells into it.
Despite the obviousness of the result, it should be admitted that the sinking of the “old galoshes” took an indecently long time. Despite the fact that real ammunition was used, and the content of explosives in a 900 kg bomb (429 kg of tritonal) exceeds its content in warheads of any, even the heaviest anti-ship missile.
For comparison: the 165-kg warhead of the popular Exocet missile contains only 56 kg of explosives.
The modern domestic "Caliber" has several options for combat equipment: warheads weighing 200 and 450 kg. The peculiarities of their design, the number and type of explosives are classified, but the content of explosives in them is obviously less than in a 900-kg aerial bomb.
Half a century ago, three P-15 missiles carrying warheads weighing 500 kg hit the small destroyer Eilat (1,700 tons, less than a modern corvette) within an hour. Although, it would seem, it was enough one. As a result, "Eilat" sank for an hour, and of the 200 people of its crew, 153 survived.
How much time and missile hits, etc.means of air attack to destroy a large, well-tailored ship with advanced structural protection?
