Anti-ship ballistic missile


An anti-ship ballistic missile is a military ballistic missile system designed to hit a warship at sea.
Due to the high flight speed of ballistic missiles, an ASBM's kinetic energy alone may be sufficient to cripple or outright destroy a target with a single conventional warhead impact. Unlike a nuclear warhead, however, this would require a direct hit to be effective; therefore unlike a land attack ballistic missile, which typically strikes fixed targets in known positions, an ASBM requires a dedicated sensor chain to detect and identify its target, combined with a precise and high-performance terminal guidance system with advanced sensors and in-flight calibrations in order to successfully hit a moving target.

History

First operational use in war

In late November 2023, during the Red Sea crisis caused by the continuation of the Gaza war, the United States Central Command in the Middle East, reported that two ballistic missiles had been fired at the United States Navy from areas controlled by Yemeni Houthi movement. In January 2024, at the same time as US and British airstrikes on Yemen, US President Joe Biden confirmed that the Yemenis had used ASBMs for the "first time in history".
  • Possibly the first ship ever hit by an ASBM was the Liberian-flagged MV Palatium 3. Afterwards, the ASBMs seem to have scored several hits on merchant vessels. The vessels that were hit are:
  • * MV Swan Atlantic
  • * MV Gibraltar Eagle
  • * MV Zografia
  • * MV Marlin Luanda
  • * Greek-owned bulk carrier Star Nasia
  • *
  • A drone and an ASBM were launched at Swan Atlantic.
  • The missile that struck Gibraltar Eagle caused no casualties or significant damage.
  • The missile that struck Zografia impacted midship; a video of the hit is available online. Zografia remained seaworthy.
  • The missile that struck Marlin Luanda caused a fire.
  • The Star Nasia reported an explosion near the ship causing minor damage but no injuries.
  • The Rubymar, according to CENTCOM, was struck by a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile on 18 February 2024, causing the crew to abandon ship. The vessel then slowly took on water until finally sinking on 2 March 2024.
  • At approximately 11:30 a.m. 6 March 2024, an ASBM was launched from Yemen by the Ansar Allah toward, while transiting the Gulf of Aden. According to CENTCOM, there were at least three confirmed casualties of the multinational crew with few more severe injuries.

    Countermeasures

The United States Navy fields what some experts believe to be the best midcourse anti-ballistic defense in the world, and is developing high powered lasers for terminal-defense against anti-ship ballistic missiles.
The U.S. arsenal has a variety of potential countermeasures.
According to a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, Roger Cliff, an anti-ship ballistic missile is not useful without additional complex ship detection, data processing and communication systems, all of which, including the missile itself, could be jammed or spoofed.
During Operation Prosperity Guardian, the first combat shootdown of an ASBM was achieved by the destroyer on 26 December 2023. By 9 January, a total of seven Houthi ASBMs had been successfully intercepted by the U.S. Navy. On 24 January 2024, shot down two Houthi ASBMs. On 26 January 2024, also successfully intercepted a Houthi ASBM.

Operators

Soviet Union

The former Soviet Union introduced the world's first intermediate-range ballistic anti-ship missile, initially called 4K18, which was modified from the R-27K, where "K" stands for korabelnaya which means "ship-related" with NATO reporting name: SS-NX-13. Initially, the Soviet Navy began testing on their submarines on 9 December 1972, first on board, a. Test firings were carried out between 11 September and 4 December 1973. Following the initial trials, the K-102 continued making trial launches with both the R-27 and the R-27K, until it was accepted for service on 15 August 1975.
Using external targeting data, the R-27K would have been launched underwater to a range of between, covering a "footprint" of. The maneuvering re-entry vehicle would then home-in on the target with a circular error probable of. Warhead yield was between 0.5–1 megatonnes.
The Russian R-27K was the world's first anti-ship ballistic missile. However, it never became operational, since every launch tube used for the R-27K counted as a strategic missile in the SALT agreement with the United States, and they were considered more important.

China

has inducted the world's first operational anti-ship ballistic missile, a "carrier killer" capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads, known as the DF-21D. In 2010, it was reported that Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy had entered the DF-21D into its early operational stage for deployment.
The DF-26, first revealed on the Victory Day Parade in 2015, is also able to carry anti-ship warheads, possibly hypersonic glide vehicles like the DF-ZF, to attack medium and large naval vessels out to ranges of.
China is apparently working on a second-generation ASBM using hypersonic maneuverable reentry vehicle technology tested on the DF-ZF. This would allow the warhead to search for the current location of the carrier, instead of just dropping towards the predicted spot it was initially aiming at. The high speed maneuvers would also make the missile much harder to intercept. Type 055 destroyers are armed with the YJ-21 anti-ship ballistic missiles along with the YJ-18 anti-ship cruise missiles in GJB 5860-2006 vertical launch system.

India

Between 2007 and 2009, the Indian Navy carried out the successful of trials Dhanush ballistic missiles, which is a naval variant of the Prithvi-III missile, for anti-ship roles. The Indian Navy currently operates the Dhanush which has a range of.

Iran

In February 2011, Iran demonstrated a short-range anti-ship ballistic missile named Persian Gulf or Khalij Fars based on the Fateh-110, which were fired from the land-based missile vehicle that successfully hit a stationary target vessel from the coast. It has been reported as a short ranged ballistic missile with a range of.
Later, Iran introduced the Hormuz missile with anti-ship capability also being launched from the land platform. In 2020, Iran unveiled the Zolfaqar Basir, an anti-ship variant of the Zolfaghar with a range of.

Pakistan

In November 2024, the Pakistan Navy successfully conducted a flight test of an anti-ship ballistic missile, the P282 SMASH, which has an officially stated range of, hitting a land-based target. The P282 SMASH was test fired from one of the Zulfiquar-class frigates and was reported to be equipped with advanced controlled navigation and maneuverability features, capable of striking land targets with high precision at that time. In early 2020, it was rumored in nation's media that the navy's weapons development complex, the Maritime Technologies Complex, was reportedly working on developing the rocket engine and the control system softwares.
On November 2025, Pakistan Navy carried another test from one of the Tughril-class frigate, hitting the sea-born target this time. The P282 SMASH has been deployed on at least one of Pakistan's Zulfiquar-class frigates and Tughril-class frigates.