The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Defeating the Sunburn
by Harold C. Hutchison
May 29, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
The Russian SS-N-22/3M80 missile, better known as the Sunburn, is a missile many
people are trying to figure out how to defeat. This is not an easy task. The
Sunburn flies as low as ten meters above the surface of the ocean at 2,800
kilometers an hour. Stopping the Sunburn is a very necessary task, since a hit
from that missile moving at 770 meters a second (as fast as a rifle bullet) is
going to make a mess on just about any ship short of an aircraft carrier, even
if the Sunburn’s 660-pound warhead doesn’t detonate. So, how does one prevent
the Sunburn from ruining their day? There are a variety of methods to keeping
the missile from reaching its target. Nearly every ship in the United States
Navy carries the Phalanx Close-in-Weapon-System (CIWS). This is a 20-millimeter
Gatling gun firing depleted uranium or tungsten rounds to destroy the missile
before it hits the ship. With an effective range of just under 1,500 meters, the
Phalanx is a marginal weapon against the Sunburn, due to the high speed of the
missile (770 meters a second). Even a destroyed missile could still spray the
ship with fragments – damaging radars, weapons, and causing casualties. It would
not be as bad as a direct hit, but it still would require the ship to undergo
repairs.
That said, there are other ways to stop Sunburn. Virtually every
warship in the world has jamming systems (electronic countermeasures) and chaff.
These systems are designed to decoy the missile. They can work, but sometimes
using them is not a good idea. Warships have chaff, but merchant vessels don’t –
and the high-speed of the Sunburn could also place other ships (the carriers and
amphibious vessels that would be escorted) at risk. The British cargo ship
Atlantic Conveyor was lost (off the Falklands in 1982) in this manner – chaff
from an escort decoyed an Exocet into the requisitioned merchant vessel. If a
Sunburn is incoming, it is better to shoot it down a fair distance away than to
count on decoying it away. If the missile is destroyed, it is gone
forever.
The United States carries two other point-defense systems: The
Rolling Airframe Missile is a variation of the venerable AIM-9 Sidewinder. This
system, in a 21-round launcher, and has a range of nine kilometers. This means
that it can engage the Sunburn at a safe distance. The other system is the
Evolved Sea Sparrow, which is used in packs of four that fit into one cell of
the Mk 41 vertical-launch system. This system has a range of over 15 kilometers.
Then there is the SM-2 missile, which has a range of 74 to 166.7 kilometers. In
essence, for a Sunburn to hit an American warship, it will have to get through
at least two and possibly as many as four layers of defenses (SM-2, ESSM, RAM,
and Phalanx).
However, the Sunburn does have a weakness. At best, its
range is 129 kilometers, and a flight time of under three minutes. For the sunburn
to be a threat, the attacking ship needs to get within range. This is going to
be very hard to do. The maximum range of U.S. Navy strike aircraft is
considerably longer. So is the range of recent versions of the Harpoon (anywhere
from 140 to 315 kilometers, depending on the version). The Sunburn that is never
launched is a Sunburn that is absolutely no threat at all. The way to stop the
Sunburn with the best chance of success is to sink the would-be launching
platform.
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