Posted on 03/20/2003 3:35:44 AM PST by Mark Felton
Fox news Washington correspondent says the Pentagon reports 3 missiles fired. Trajectory indicates 1st missile is a SCUD that was intercepted by the PAtriot
The 2nd missile was a Chinese anti-ship cruise missile that was not intercepted but missed targets and did no damage.
The 3rd "missile" was actually a light aircraft that crashed harmlessly in Kuwait.
LOL
Oh, by the way, looks like the Iraqi Ministry of Information (propaganda central) is starting up their campaign. They are in the process now of taking CNN -contracted reporters and others to the site of the attack last night 'to see the damage'. Watch them roll out people from hospitals with ketchup poured on them.
It's starting. We need to send a cruise missile into wherever the Iraqi Ministry of Information is, to stop this propaganda they will try to ramp up now and discourage Americans. The CNN reporter I believe was stating as 'fact' the injury/death toll and other report she was getting from Iraq, even though these things will be lies.
Seeing also if he can get his army to obey commands instead of surrendering.
The SS-N-22 anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM), code named 'Sunburn' by NATO and known in Russia as the 3M-80E 'Moskit' missile, is considered by many observers to be the most threatening ship-launched ASCM in service today. Developed by Russia’s Raduga missile design bureau, the SS-N-22 is a supersonic (Mach 2.1), low-flying (7 to 20 m, or about 23 to 66 feet, above the surface of the water) ASCM that performs a terminal ‘S’ manoeuvre (pulling up to 15G) to evade close-in defenses at a distance of 5 to 7 km (about 2.7 to 3.8 nautical miles) to its target.
The 3M-80E 'Moskit' missile, an improved variant of the basic 3M-80, has an operational range of 160 km. The weapon’s Altair-designed multi-channel seeker uses active radar, anti-radiation and home-on-jam modes. The missile is armed with a conventional 300 kg penetrating warhead containing 150 kg of high explosive, or (in the Russian Navy) a 200 kiloton nuclear warhead.
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3M-80 (SS-N-22) supersonic anti-ship missile |
Even with a conventional warhead, 'Moskit' missile is large enough so that one hit from a single missile could seriously damage or possibly even sink a U.S. Navy major surface combatant, a hit from one or possibly even a few conventionally-armed 'Moskit' missiles might not be enough to halt flight operations on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier because of the carrier’s much larger size and its high degree of compartmentalization. A nuclear-armed 'Moskit', however, could easily destroy a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier (and any other nearby ships), even if the warhead detonates at some distance from the carrier.
The SS-N-22's designers have stated openly that the missile was developed to defeat the U.S. Navy’s Aegis air-defense system. The SS-N-22 entered service in 1984 –- a year after the U.S. Navy’s first Aegis-equipped ship, the Ticonderoga (CG-47), entered service. The U.S. Navy concerned over effectiveness of the Aegis system centered to a large degree on the ability of the system to defeat the SS-N-22, particularly since the Navy at that time did not have an air-defense target missile that could fully replicate the supersonic, low-flying flight profile of the SS-N-22. The U.S. Navy’s attempts over the years to develop such a target missile indigenously have met with some failures, and Navy actions in recent years to acquire appropriate target missiles have, ironically, included proposed or actual purchases of SS-N-22s themselves as well as modified air-launched Russian ASCMs known as MA-31s.
Despite various progress the U.S. Navy has made in improving its surface ships' air defence capability against 'Moskit' missile, the missile probably remains a challenging weapon for the Aegis system. A 1993 article about U.S. attempts to purchase some of the missiles for use as targets quoted an unnamed Navy official as saying, “This missile is a source of great concern to the Navy” because of its speed. Ships equipped with an Aegis system (or some other rapid-reaction air-defense system) might not be able to guarantee 100% effectiveness in defending themselves against the missile, and ships not so equipped would be highly vulnerable to the missile unless they operate under the protective cover of an Aegis-equipped ship.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: Length 9.38 m; Diameter 0.76, Wingspan 1.3 m
Launch Weight: 3,950 kg
Warhead: 300 kg HE
Propilsion: Liquid ramjet + Solid booster
Maximum Speed: Mach 2.1
Maximum Range: 90 km
Flight Altitude: 20 m
Guidance Mode: Inertia with update, final active/pasive radar homing
Single-Shot Hit Probability: 60~80%
The SS-N-22 Sunburn has both active and passive homing i.e. it's guided by radar and also can home in on other radar systems [the passive side] without using its active capabilities. It's impossible for it to be shot down by any landbased systems unless it's by pure luck.
Terp, a former Electronic Warfare Specialist in the United States Navy
Terp
Not true, we used to joke if we knew a Sunburn was fired at us that we would have the ships helo go out behind us with it's navigation radar on and we onboard the ship would turn our radars off and the missile would take out the helo.
Terp
Col. Al-Mullah said the air defense units fired Patriot missiles in the direction of the incoming Scud missiles that were fired by the Iraqi Army while the other fell in an uninhabited region in the desert in northern Kuwait.
He added that sirens blared throughout the country to warn the nationals and residents to take precautions.
Col. Mullah explained that up to three Patriots were fired in the direction of one of the incoming missiles and was directly hit in the air.
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