Just able to get on. Have ya'll been able to discuss the Chinese Sunburn type missile(s) that headed toward Kuwait? Fox saying they're a more dangerous missile than a Scud.
Sunburn info:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/moskit.htm Moskit
SS-N-22 Sunburn
Moskit is the aircraft variant of the naval missile 3M80 (SS-N-22 Sunburn, the designation 3M80 apparently referring to the Mach 3 speed of 1980 weapons) used on "Sovremennyy" destroyers (eight missiles on each) and on "Tarantul [Tarantula] III patrol ships (four missiles on each).
The 3M82 "Mosquito" missiles have the fastest flying speed among all antiship missiles in today's world. It reaches Mach 3 at a high altitude and its maximum low-altitude speed is M2.2, triple the speed of the American Harpoon. When slower missiles, like the French Exocet are used, the maximum theoretical response time for the defending ship is 150-120 seconds. This provides time to launch countermeasures and employ jamming before deploying "hard" defense tactics such as launching missiles and using quick-firing artillery. But the 3M82 "Mosquito" missiles are extremely fast and give the defending side a maximum theoretical response time of merely 25-30 seconds, rendering it extremely difficult employ jamming and countermeasures, let alone fire missiles and quick-firing artillery.
The aircraft version, officially called ASM-MMS and apparently also Kh-4, is intended specially for Su-27K (Su-33) carrier-based fighter aircraft. It was for the first time shown to the CIS leaders in February 1992 in Machulishche and then to the public in August 1992 at the Moscow Air Show in Zhukovskiy.
The missile is propelled by a dual (rocket-jet) engine operating by the same principle as the Kh-31 engine. The missile, suspended under the aircraft, has a folding wing. The missile is guided by an autopilot during the initial fight stage, with possible correction by the aircraft pilot, and by active radar during the final flight stage.
More Sunburn:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=18173 © 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Sunburn missile test
The Chinese military is set to conduct a flight test soon of one its newly acquired Russian anti-ship cruise missiles, according to intelligence officials. Preparations for the test firing of the SSN-22 Sunburn missile were detected during the past week and reported to senior officials. The missiles are deployed aboard a Russian-built cruise missile destroyer.
The officials said there is more bad news: China's second Sovremenny-class cruise missile destroyer is on its way to China from Russia. The first destroyer was sent in February.
Word of the Chinese cruise missile test comes a week after the House passed legislation to punish Russia with economic sanctions for selling the supersonic missiles to China.
The missile test will take place in waters off southern China.
The supersonic missiles were designed specifically by the Russians to sink U.S. warships and their purchase followed the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis when two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups were dispatched to waters near Taiwan in response to Chinese missile test firings that landed north and south of the island.
Defense officials said the first batch of Sunburns -- called Moskit, by the Russians -- was delivered to China in May. Navy officials have described the weapon as the most significant recent military development for the Chinese navy because of the missile's ship-killing power.
(Oct. 13, 2000)