Sea skimming

Sea skimming

Sea skimming is a technique many anti-ship missiles utilize to avoid radar and infrared detection during their approach.

Method

Sea skimming anti-ship missiles try to fly as low as is practically achievable, which is almost always below 50 meters (150 ft), and is often down towards 5 meters (15 ft). [http://www.ausairpower.net/ascms.pdf]

Advantages

By flying low to the sea, the missile decreases the range at which the target ship detects the missile by some amount, often a large amount. Flying at a lower altitude means the missile is over the horizon for a longer time from the perspective of the target ship, and makes it harder to detect the missile because of Radar Clutter and similar effects. The real-life success of sea skimming depends on the exact implementation of the sea skimming, the sophistication of the detection equipment, as well as the infrared and radar signature of the missile. Sea skimming shaves seconds or even minutes off of the response time available to try to shoot down the missile. This means the response time of the ship's missile defenses might not be sufficient to shoot down the missile before it is too late, making a sea skimming missile significantly harder to defend against. Sea skimming can also increase the range of a missile, by relying on ground effects.

Disadvantages

Utilizing sea skimming means there is the increased risk of the missile impacting with the water before reaching the target, due to weather conditions, rogue waves, software bugs and various other factors. Sea skimming also hinders target acquisition, as many of the principles that hinder the target's detection of the missile also hinder the missile's detection of the target. Furthermore, sea skimming involves a significant amount of computations, which means the missile must have corresponding processing power, which adds cost.

Criticism

Use in Major Wars

ee Also

References

External Links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Sea Wolf missile — Infobox Weapon is missile=yes caption=A trainable launcher type Sea Wolf missile. The vertical launch missile has a large booster motor in tandem. name=Sea Wolf type=Surface to air origin=UK era=Cold War launch platform=Ship target=Missile,… …   Wikipedia

  • Sea Dart missile — Infobox Weapon is missile=yes caption= Sea Dart missile name=Sea Dart type=surface to air, surface to surface origin=UK era=Cold War launch platform=ship target=aircraft or ship manufacturer=Hawker Siddeley (later British Aerospace) design date=… …   Wikipedia

  • Sea Eagle missile — Infobox Weapon is missile=yes caption= name=Sea Eagle type=Anti ship missile origin=UK launch platform=Fixed and rotary wing aircraft target=Shipping manufacturer=BAe Air Weapons Division, Hatfield production date=1982 service=1985 used by= UK,… …   Wikipedia

  • Sea Cat — This article is about the missile. For the ferry operator, see SeaCat. Sea Cat Sea Cat GWS 20 series missile Type Surface to air missile Place of origin …   Wikipedia

  • Sea Cat missile — Infobox Weapon is missile=yes caption=Sea Cat GWS 20 series missile name=Sea Cat type=Surface to air missile origin=United Kingdom launch platform=Ship target=aircraft manufacturer=Short Brothers design date= production date= service=1962– used… …   Wikipedia

  • RIM-7 Sea Sparrow — Infobox Weapon is missile=yes name=RIM 7 Sea Sparrow caption= origin= type=Surface to air missile used by= manufacturer=Raytheon and General Dynamics unit cost=$165,400 propellant= production date= service=1976 engine=Hercules MK 58 solid… …   Wikipedia

  • White-bellied Sea Eagle — Taxobox name = White bellied Sea eagle status = LC | status system = IUCN3.1 regnum = Animalia phylum = Chordata classis = Aves ordo = Falconiformes familia = Accipitridae genus = Haliaeetus species = H. leucogaster binomial = Haliaeetus… …   Wikipedia

  • Naval warfare — Sea power redirects here. For the magazine, see Seapower. The French (left) and British (right) lines at the Battle of Chesapeake Warfare …   Wikipedia

  • PAAMS — Sea Viper redirects here. For the steel roller coaster at Sea World in Australia, see Sea Viper (roller coaster). The SYLVER launchers of Forbin The Principal Anti Air Missile System (PAAMS) is a joint French/Italian/British programme for a naval …   Wikipedia

  • YJ-91 — is the Chinese version of Kh 31, with YJ short for Ying Ji (Yingji, 鹰击) meaning Eagle Strike. After purchasing 200 Kh 31P from Russia, China decided to develop their own version because the original Kh 31 missile did not fully satisfy Chinese… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”