In the spring of 2009, at the exhibition of defense systems in Asia, Novator Design Bureau first introduced the Caliber-K cruise missile system. It includes four such marine missiles. The caliber missile system looks like a regular twelve-meter cargo container, which is used for transportation. This disguise helps the complex to be undetected until the moment of activation.
“Affordable strategic missile systems,” as the developers called the new missile system, because its price was only less than fifteen million dollars.
Compact rockets
For Western military experts, the appearance of such a disguise caused panic, because thanks to it all the rules of warfare have changed completely since then. Such a container can be discreetly located anywhere: both on a ship and in a train, and be a car trailer, and fly in an airplane. Therefore, the adversary has since needed to conduct the most thorough reconnaissance before deciding to attack.
But in any port and railway station in developed countries, such containers are huge. They serve as warehouses, equipment can be placed in them, or workers can be located. In addition, they can be installed power plants of various types and much more. And it is practically impossible to determine which of the hundreds of thousands of containers the Caliber missile system has inside.
Transport for civilian purposes is great for such a load. Among the countless ships and trains with the same, no different containers, to find that one is unrealistic. And tracking them from satellites without a break is also not possible.
Panic of the West
According to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, experts believe that if Iraq had such missile systems, it would be unlikely that the United States would invade the Persian Gulf, since absolutely any cargo ship in the bay could have such a missile system Caliber ".
The Pentagon expressed serious concern about the fact that Russia began to offer missile systems to all those who could be attacked by the United States. They believe that the situation in the world will be destabilized if such weapons fall, for example, into Venezuela or Iran.
In the United States, they were previously very worried that Russia intended to sell Iran the S-300 air defense system, which had the ability to repel a missile strike by the United States or Israel. Needless to say, the Caliber missile system is not air defense, but strike weapon.
Characteristics "Caliber". Why is the West so scared?
Previously, missile systems were intended for their installation only on ships and submarines. But the breakthrough of the Novator Design Bureau is that the new cruise missiles are installed in a conventional container and can be launched autonomously. Thus, the use of missiles is fundamentally changing.
"Caliber-K" has no formal restrictions on use. The range of the Caliber-K cruise missiles ranges from two hundred and fifty to three hundred kilometers; they are not ballistic. Earlier, the Americans deduced for any restrictions the export of their Tomahawk cruise missiles. As a result, Russia does not have any export restrictions on cruise missiles, especially such a short range.
Why did the Pentagon military alert the Caliber missile system? The characteristics of the complex do not differ in anything new and super-technological. It does not have a long range of target destruction and is not superhigh.
However, the danger of the complex for the enemy lies in the fact that it is in a completely compact container and is practically invisible to any reconnaissance - technical or air. It can be safely installed almost anywhere, for example, for coastal defense. After all, these are just cruise missiles. But! Thanks to them, it is no longer possible to suddenly break up the coastal defense, since this will require hitting too many targets, most of which will turn out to be false.
Therefore, aircraft carriers do not dare to fly close to the shore, and landing ships may not be very good at trying to land. Opinions are expressed that if the air defense systems were hidden in the same containers, then certainly no one would dare to encroach on the sea borders.
How container rockets are arranged
Container-type missile systems in Russia were manufactured at Morinformsystem-Agat Concern OJSC. In one container, there is an installation for launching four missiles. But, besides this, two more similar containers are needed. In one of the bottom should be the Control Module, and in the other - the Life Support and Nutrition Module. Through them, daily maintenance and checks are carried out, commands for shooting are received, target data are calculated, preparations are made before launch, the flight mission and missile launch.
To realize all this, well-established communications, navigation via satellite, command post and combat crew are required . Therefore, terrorists are unlikely to be able to use such equipment, since they do not have satellites, and Caliber receives communications through the Russian space group.
Container missiles - a reflection of an attack during a threat
The purpose of the container complex is the arming of civilian ships during external threats. Located near the coast, they will cover the coast from landing craft. In the presence of roads and railways, they become mobile anti-ship systems, which are able to stop the enemy at a distance of not less than one hundred fifty or more kilometers. Therefore, for defense, these complexes are highly effective.
Caliber alone is enough to replace naval aviation and the navy. The modest price of the complex is very competitive compared to expensive equipment from Western Europe. The complex is perfect for German submarines, Spanish frigates, Italian helicopters and other weapons. Even the United Arab Emirates is also actively eyeing the complexes.
Russian missile systems
The Caliber family (or Club, in its export version) includes five missiles for various purposes, power and range. Photo "Caliber" is presented below.
The anti-ship winged 3M54E was developed on the basis of the "Pomegranate", which serves to attack aircraft carriers. The range of this missile is three hundred kilometers. The flight speed of the rocket is 0.8 the speed of sound. When approaching a target, its speed increases and exceeds one kilometer per second. However, this missile will certainly not be able to sink an aircraft carrier with one blow and therefore is a tactical weapon.
Rocket Alpha
But the first component of the missile system was the Alpha rocket, which was first seen in 1993 at an exhibition in Abu Dhabi and the international aerospace show in Zhukovsky. From the same year it was adopted.
The rocket's western designation is the SS-N-27 Sizzler. It is also called “Club”, “Turquoise” and “Alpha”. But the Russian code for the rocket is Caliber.
India was the first to purchase this Caliber strike missile system. They were installed on frigates and submarines of the Indian Armed Forces, which were built by Russian enterprises. On those submarines that have already been purchased, repairs and modernization work have been carried out. It was also decided to deliver these missile systems to China and a number of other countries.
"Caliber-N" and "Caliber-S"
In 1990, Club-N and Club-S missile systems for submarines and surface ships were also offered for export. Initially, they served to destroy submarines. So, the 91RE1 rocket is launched from a torpedo tube at five hundred thirty-three millimeters. With the help of a solid-fuel engine, it passes a section under water and gains height. Next, the second-stage engine is turned on and the Caliber cruise missile continues to move to the point of strike. She finds a submarine on her own. A little later, in addition to missiles hitting submarines, the complex was equipped with anti-ship missiles. The famous “Varshavyanka” submarines of project 636.3 are armed with Club-S complexes. They are exported to India and China, Vietnam and Algeria.
Cruise missile 3M14E
This missile has similar characteristics with 3M54E1. However, it is intended to destroy ground targets, and not underwater ("Caliber PL") and surface ("Caliber NK"). A missile system of this kind is being managed a little differently. Elements of its control are a barometer, which ensures stealth of the flight due to the necessary accurate height-keeping while bending around the relief terrain, and a satellite navigation system, which contributes to high-precision guidance.
3M54E and 3M54E1. Similarities and differences
3M54E and 3M54E1 also have a similar configuration. They are made according to the standard aerodynamic scheme with a trapezoidal opening wing, but differ in the number of steps.
The 3M54E rocket has three stages: solid propellant at launch, marching with a liquid reagent, and a third solid propellant.
The start begins at the expense of the first stage, after which it is separated and the main engine with the wing opening is launched. The speed at this stage reaches two hundred and forty meters per second. After finding the target, the second stage also separates and the third begins to work. The speed at the same time develops up to a thousand meters per second.
The main difference between the 3M54E1 missile and the 3M54E missile is the absence of the third stage. Therefore, the 3M54E1 rocket has only subsonic speed. She is two meters shorter. But its warhead is almost double compared to the 3M54E missile. 3M54E1 flies in the same way as the compared model, but not accelerating at the end.
The latest weapons of Russia
On September 23, 2014, the commander of the Black Sea Navy reported to the president that submarines on which long-range cruise missiles were installed would be based in Novorossiysk. When the president asked for clarification about what kind of range in question, the fleet commander replied that the range of the missiles is one thousand five hundred kilometers. Experts believe that the new Russian cruise missiles were 3M14 caliber family missiles.
The fact is that diesel-electric submarines located in the Black Sea Fleet launch torpedoes with a diameter of five hundred thirty-three millimeters. It is these characteristics that the Caliber cruise missile mentioned above has. Such a missile is launched from vertical installations or from submarine torpedo tubes. According to some reports, it consists of two types of combat units: special and conventional. Thanks to the special part, the range of the missile was much increased.
This latest Russian weaponry enables the Black Sea Fleet to hit targets outside the Black Sea without leaving its permanent deployment point.
So the general public was presented with information about the range of missiles in one and a half thousand kilometers. However, experts have long known about such and even greater range of missiles. In 2012, the commander of the Caspian Flotilla had already stated that the Caliber missiles that were installed on his ships could deliver strikes with a range of two thousand six hundred kilometers.
Thus, Russian cruise missiles caught up with and overtook the American Tomahawk missiles with a range of two and a half thousand kilometers with a nuclear warhead and one thousand six hundred with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead.
Military experts on a long-range missile
Experts agreed that the use of a long-range cruise missile does not violate the Treaty on the Elimination of Short and Medium-Range Missiles, because they simply do not fall under the jurisdiction of this document, and there were no other parties, thanks to the United States.
Ongoing exhibitions
International experts knew about the development of such missiles and earlier the 2009 exhibition. Exhibitions of military equipment with the participation of "Caliber" have been held before. In 2006, in Nizhny Tagil, the Alpha rocket was first demonstrated at the exhibition. And they started talking about this rocket long before that, back in the 90s.
In 2010, the Caliber missile system was also presented at the international military exhibition in Qatar. This is the coastal complex Club-M of mobile type, the modular complex Club-U and the container complex, already introduced a year earlier in Malaysia, Club-K.