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Chinese Anti-Shipping Missiles

Surface-to-surface missiles refer to missiles launched from land to attack land targets. It is composed of warhead, projectile body or warhead, power organization and guidance system. It forms a surface-to-surface missile weapon system with missile ground command and control, detection and tracking, and launch systems. Surface-to-surface missiles carry single or multiple warheads, have the characteristics of long range, great power, and high precision, and have become a major component of strategic nuclear weapons.

Surface-to-surface tactical missiles carry nuclear warheads or conventional warheads and have a relatively short range. They are used to strike targets within the depth of the tactics of a campaign. They are important weapons for ground forces. The launch methods of surface-to-surface missiles are divided into ground and underground, fixed and mobile, vertical and inclined, hot launch or cold launch. Its maximum range is as large as tens of thousands of kilometers, such as ground-to-ground intercontinental missiles; its minimum range is as short as tens of meters, such as ground-launched anti-tank missiles.

Air-to-surface missiles refer to missiles launched from aircraft to attack ground (water) surface targets. They are also called air-to-surface missiles. Long-range missiles are also called out-of-zone launch weapons. It is one of the main weapons used by aviation for aerial assaults, and is equipped on strategic bombers, fighter bombers, assault planes, fighter planes, armed helicopters, and anti-submarine patrol aircraft. Compared with aerial bombs, aerial rockets and other weapons, air-to-surface missiles have a higher target damage probability, strong mobility and good concealment. They can be launched from outside the range of enemy air defense weapons and can reduce the threat of ground air defense fire to the carrier aircraft. ; But the cost is high and the maintenance is complicated.

Anti-ship missiles are naval weapons developed only after the 1960s. Because of their small size, high speed, low cost, and high power, they were quickly favored by the militaries of various countries. In 1967, in the Third Middle East War, the Egyptian army sank Israel’s largest destroyer "Eilat" at the time with four inexpensive Soviet-made "Styx" anti-ship missiles. Fame in one fell swoop. After the 1980s, air-launched anti-ship missiles appeared. In the 1982 War on the Islands of Marathon, Argentina used 6 Flying Fish air-to-ship missiles to sink the British Royal Navy’s multi-billion-dollar USS Sheffield’s main destroyer and a large transport ship, almost completely changed the course of the war.

China's anti-ship missiles have been developed for four generations. The first generation is the "upstream" series of anti-ship missiles and the Yingzhe-6 anti-ship missiles. The second generation is the YJ-81 and YJ-82 series of anti-ship missiles. The third generation is the YJ-62 , YJ-83 , YJ-91 and YJ-9 series of anti-ship missiles. The fourth generation is The YJ-12 and YJ-18 anti-ship missiles. Among them, the current active anti-ship missiles of the People's Liberation Army are mainly concentrated in the third and fourth generations. The Eagle-83 missiles equipped with large surface ships and submarines have a range of about 200 kilometers, the Eagle-62 missile has a range of 450 to 550 kilometers, and its improved range reaches an unprecedented 600 to 650 kilometers.

Among the fourth-generation anti-ship missiles, the YJ-18 mainly replaces the YJ-83 series and adopts the "sub-super-combination" method. It has strong penetration capabilities and range advantages. It will become China's sea-based anti-ship missiles and shore-based missiles. The core force of anti-ship missiles, the YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship missile has the characteristics of high speed, high maneuverability and large range. It will be the core force of China's air-based anti-ship missiles, with a certain type of long-range air-launched anti-ship cruise missile.

According to relevant information, China has made significant progress in tactical missile guidance systems recently. High-precision laser inertial navigation and optical fiber inertial navigation systems have been used. The second phase of the " Beidou " project has been put into use, enabling China to have an independent satellite navigation and positioning system. This has laid a solid foundation for China's large-scale use of satellite navigation/inertial guidance systems, and also brought China's mid- and long-range anti-ship missile attack capability to a higher level.

The thrifty Chinese are not content to use a single missile for a single purpose, but are known to cleverly deploy the same missile in a variety of launch modes. This parsimony with respect to hardware imposes a penalty with respect to nomenclature, since the virtually identical missile will acquire a new set of designators once it is applied to a new mission or launch mode. Hence, the ship-launched CSS-N-4 SARDINE becomes the CSS-C-8 SACCADE when launched from the shore [in case you are wondering, SACCADE is "the movement of the eye from one fixation point to another" -- and SARDINE is "a small fish"].

Matters are further complicated by the fact that the readily accessible public record fails to disclose the fact of the existence of a variety of designations which are almost certainly in use by either the Chinese military or their observant counterparts in other countries [eg, the Chinese service designation for the SARDINE remains obscure, as does the NATO name for the CSS-N-5].