Great Britain and France completed the first qualification tests of the Sea Venom anti-ship missile (Sea Poison). According to the rocket manufacturer - the European concern MBDA, the tests were held off Levan Island in the Mediterranean Sea at the training ground of the General Directorate for Armaments, which is part of the French Ministry of Defense.
According to the MBDA, the missile was launched from an Airbus AS365 Dauphin helicopter, while the launch height was close to the minimum. The shell reached a cruising subsonic speed at an extremely low altitude above the surface of the water.
This test was a logical continuation of two previous tests, in which, in particular, the ability to capture the target before and after the launch of the rocket, autonomous guidance systems, and its performance during the flight were tested.
The Sea Venom missile, according to media reports, has 2.5 m in length, 200 mm in diameter, a mass of 120 kg and a "high subsonic speed" flight. The declared maximum range of target destruction is 20 km. The missile works on the principle of starting the marching engine after separation from the carrier, after which the infrared guidance system is activated.
At the same time, the operator has the opportunity to retarget the rocket during the flight, as well as adjust the aiming point and, if necessary, prematurely and safely complete the task.
The creation of the rocket was launched in 2014 in the interests of the French and British Navy, and the first test launches took place in 2017. According to the developer, the new missile will have to replace two types of anti-ship missiles - the British Sea Skua and the French AS15TT.
According to the MBDA, these missiles will be used on British AgustaWestland AW159 helicopters, Lynx Wildcat HMA2 and Airbus H160M helicopters designed for the French fleet.
The manufacturer of the rocket also indicates that it is designed to destroy enemy ships - from small and mobile vessels to corvettes.
Anti-ship rearmament
New anti-ship missiles appear not only in Europe. In 2018, the U.S. Navy adopted the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), manufactured by the Norwegian company Kongsberg in tandem with the American concern Raytheon.
NSMs have a firing range of about 200 km and fly at low altitudes to avoid radar detection. Naval Strike Missile has an infrared target detection system for targeting an individual target in a dense group of enemy ships.
- The launch of the American missile Naval Strike Missile from the ship USS Coronado
- © US Navy
In addition, according to the US Navy's budget documents for 2021, the United States intends to equip the F / A-18E / F Super Hornet marine fighter aircraft with LRASM (Long-Range Anti-Surface Missile) anti-ship cruise missiles.
These missiles, as well as Sea Venom missiles tested by the European MDBA concern, are capable of distinguishing and destroying individual targets among groups of ships and vessels. At the same time, according to the developers, they can perform these combat missions in the conditions of suppression of GPS-signals and communications.
The range of the LRASM is up to 930 km, and one missile can sink a ship with a displacement of up to 9 thousand tons.
It is worth noting that the US Navy has pledged funds for the purchase of a record number of anti-ship weapons in its budget for 2021. Until 2025, US sailors will receive 850 missiles of various types.
In an interview with RT, military expert Yuri Knutov said that Western countries are updating their arsenal of sea-based missiles, including due to the strengthening of the Russian Navy.
“Among the Western maritime powers, there is a tendency to update the anti-ship arsenal, because Russia is actively updating its fleet. In addition, they are worried that Moscow will soon have a Zircon rocket, which has a hypersonic warhead. France, the UK and the US are now trying to jointly create something similar, because in the field of hypersound they are quite far behind, ”the expert explained.
The tendency of the western sea powers to update the anti-ship arsenal has been observed for a long time, military expert Alexei Leonkov noted in a conversation with RT.
“Over the past five years, they are revising their weapons, choosing more promising missiles. However, Russia continued to develop the scientific and technical reserve, which was in the USSR and was on an equal footing with NATO countries. She continued, did better, created more promising and modern models, which greatly worries the Western powers. Moscow already has the X-35 anti-ship missile, which, after recent refinement, flies twice as far and has become more maneuverable, ”said the expert.
Obviously, new anti-ship weapons are being tested by Western countries with an eye to counteracting Russia and China, Alexei Leonkov believes.
“As an adversary, Western countries always consider either Russia, in which anti-ship weapons can also be mounted on submarines, or China, which surpassed the USA in the number of surface ships,” the expert believes.
Sound barrier
It is worth noting that both European and American anti-ship missiles, both in the testing phase and recently adopted, are subsonic. At the same time, Russia is actively testing sea-based hypersonic missiles.
So, on February 29, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu, at a meeting of the board of the department said that hypersonic weapons were being tested in the Northern Fleet. And a month earlier, Navy Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Evmenov announced that in the coming years a 3M22 Zircon missile would be deployed on one of the Russian frigates.
- Hypersonic rocket "Zircon"
- © NGO Engineering
In 2019, Vladimir Putin revealed some characteristics of this type of weapon during a message to the Federal Assembly. Then the Russian president said that the Zircon’s flight speed would be 9 Machs (sound speeds), and the firing range would exceed 1,000 km. In this case, the rocket will be able to hit both sea and land targets.
In a conversation with RT, Yury Knutov recalled that Western countries are also developing this type of weapons, but in terms of their capabilities they are behind Russia.
“The Russian Navy has a tremendous advantage over these types of weapons, since the missiles that the United States, France and Great Britain are trying to create now have a warhead with a speed of 6-7 missiles, while the Zircon, which is likely to by the end of this year, it will go into service with the Russian army - more than 10 flights, ”said the expert.
At the same time, Alexei Leonkov emphasized that, despite their obvious strategic and technological advantages, sea-based hypersonic missiles are not a weapon of aggression for Russia.
“The Russian defense doctrine is aimed at safeguarding its sovereignty. The level of development of its army and navy is at a stage that allows the Russian president to declare with full confidence that he is ready to repulse any aggressor. However, Moscow does not stop there and continues to develop military equipment, completely re-equips military units with modern weapon systems, improves the army and navy, air forces and builds aerospace defense, ”the military expert concluded.