Why the West was scared of the new Russian missile system
“Starting the development of the Club-K missile system, we proceeded from the understanding that not all states have the opportunity to maintain such expensive“toys”as corvettes, frigates, destroyers, cruisers and other powerful, well-equipped missile weapons in their fleets. ships. However, no one has the right to deprive them of the opportunity to ensure their sovereignty. At the same time, a potential aggressor must really understand that he can get unacceptable damage. This is an excerpt from the press release of the Morinformsistema-Agat concern, which was circulated in response to the general hysteria that broke out in the Western media about the new product of the holding.
More precisely, I think, you can’t tell. The Club-K complex should, perhaps, be called the very asymmetric response that only states that dare to enter into confrontation with Washington can count on in the modern world. The truly unprecedented budget of the Pentagon, the highest technological level at which modern American weapons are located, simply leave no chances for any army in the world to give a worthy response to the US Armed Forces in open combat. The presence of a mobile high-precision weapon, which is difficult to detect by means of visual reconnaissance, capable of causing serious damage to enemy personnel and equipment, can change the tone of communication between opponents. Club-K is a kind of deterrent weapon for the poor.
From a technical point of view, this project is extraordinarily beautiful and ingeniously simple. It is even surprising that the idea of creating a weapon of this kind did not occur to anyone earlier.
The complex includes three elements: a universal launch module (USM), a combat control module (MOBU), and a power supply and life support module (FES), housed in standard 40-foot sea containers.
Indeed, why do we need huge eight-wheeled tractors, frigates built using stealth technology, if there is an opportunity to confine ourselves to inconspicuous containers, for the time being hidden from prying eyes among hundreds of their own kind in the far corner of the seaport or the freight yard of the railway station.
USM consists of a launcher with four transport and launch containers. They should house cruise missiles developed by the Yekaterinburg design bureau Novator: anti-ship 3M-54TE, 3M-54TE1 and the 3M-14TE designed to destroy ground targets.
3M-54TE and 3M-54TE1 can be used against surface ships of all classes and types, both single and in a group, in conditions of strong electronic and fire resistance. The firing range of 3M-54TE missiles is from 12, 5-15 to 220 km, and 3M-54TE1 - up to 275 km. The 3M-14TE missile is designed to destroy command and control systems, air defense systems, airfields, military equipment and manpower in concentration areas, naval bases and other important objects of military and civil infrastructure at a distance of up to 275 km.
Long-range missiles of Club systems make it possible to effectively engage surface, underwater and coastal targets at a safe distance from the enemy.
The onboard missile control system 3M-54TE / 3M-54TE1 is based on an autonomous inertial navigation system. Prelaunch preparation, formation and input of a flight task are carried out by a universal control system. Guidance on the final section of the trajectory - with the help of an anti-jamming active radar homing head (ARGS-54), which has a maximum range of up to 65 km. Since the combat stage of the 3M-54TE missile is reduced to a height of up to 10 m in the final flight segment, which is about 20 km long, ARGS-54 can operate at sea waves of up to 6 points.
The flight speed of the 3M-54TE rocket in the cruising section is 0.6-0.8 M, and in the final section - up to 3 M, which makes it virtually impossible to intercept it. In the 3M-54TE1, the flight along the entire trajectory takes place at subsonic speed, and a special zigzag anti-missile maneuver is performed immediately in front of the target to reduce the likelihood of the missile being hit by enemy air defenses.
The flight speed of the 3M-14TE is also subsonic. After launch, it flies along a pre-laid route, built taking into account intelligence data on the position of the target and the presence of the enemy's air defense systems. The missile is capable of overcoming the zones of the enemy's advanced air defense system, which is ensured by extremely low flight altitudes (20 m above the sea, 50-150 m above the ground) with a bend around the terrain and autonomy of guidance in the "silence" mode in the main section. Correction of the flight trajectory on the cruising section is carried out according to the data of the satellite navigation subsystem and the subsystem of correction for the terrain. The principle of operation of the latter is based on comparing the terrain of a specific area of the missile's location with reference maps of the terrain along the route of its flight, previously stored in the memory of the on-board control system. Navigation is carried out along a complex trajectory: the missile has the ability to bypass strong air defense / missile defense zones of the enemy or difficult terrain areas by entering the coordinates of the so-called route turn points into the flight task. Guidance in the final section of the trajectory is also carried out using an anti-jamming active radar homing head (ARGS-14E), which effectively distinguishes subtle small-sized targets against the background of the underlying surface.
The mass of the 3M-54TE missile warhead is 200 kg, the 3M-54TE1 missile weight is 400 kg, and the 3M-14TE missile has the most powerful high-explosive warhead weighing 450 kg.
The combat control module of the Club-K complex provides for the reception of target designation and commands for the execution of firing, the calculation of the initial firing data, pre-launch preparation, the development of a flight task and the launch of cruise missiles, as well as their daily maintenance and routine checks.
The container design of the Club-K complex allows a very high level of camouflage to be achieved and used from civilian carriers, be it transport ships, railway platforms or car trailers. However, measures for reconnaissance of targets, the formation and issuance of a flight task require not only a well-prepared crew, but also means of reconnaissance, communication systems and combat control. In other words, Club-K is by no means a MANPADS or a grenade launcher available for use by any illiterate guerrilla. A missile system of this level can only be used by regular armies, which means that its delivery is possible only within the framework of the existing procedures for military-technical cooperation, limited by appropriate sanctions.
Meanwhile, Western experts, as well as representatives of the Pentagon, who first discovered Club-K as part of the Russian exposition at the international Asian exhibition of systems and services in the defense industry DSA 2010, held on April 19-22 in Malaysia, unanimously stated that the launch of this complex on the market could completely change the balance of power on the world chessboard and even transform the rules of war. Naturally, the experts are most afraid of the possibility of purchasing this complex by such odious countries as Iran and Venezuela. However, analysts' hysteria is a typical example of double standards, when one specific country, taking advantage of total military-technical superiority, considers itself entitled to "establish democracy" by the methods of missile and bomb strikes virtually anywhere in the world, ignoring the unwillingness of others to perceive the very dubious values of the pop -cultures and consumer societies.
Although in fairness it is worth noting that the hypothetical precedent for the combat use of the Club-K complex can really, to one degree or another, change the rules of warfare. The very idea of disguising military platforms as civilian objects is by no means new. For example, during World War I, Britain's use of Q-ships - civilian steamers with camouflaged artillery weapons designed to destroy German submarines operating on Atlantic communications - led to non-compliance by the latter with the "cruising rules" approved at the beginning of the century. These rules obliged submariners intending to attack a civilian vessel to fire a warning shot and wait for the crew and passengers to leave. Unrestricted submarine warfare was the result of the abandonment of the "cruising rules". On the other hand, totality was the hallmark of all the “big” wars of the twentieth century. And there are no prerequisites for the situation to change for the better in the coming century.
