Great warships

Chapter 1244: Range , Error (Additional Update)

"Humph, it's just a subsonic anti-ship missile, and the warhead doesn't have much explosives, what's the big deal." Sunil looked at his men with an unconvinced expression, "How about it, are you ready for the test launch?"

"We are ready." Pilai, the head of BrahMos Aerospace, said confidently: "This test launch is different from the previous ones. This time it is a test launch after formal deployment. We will use the most advanced Delhi-class destroyer to launch missiles and hit the target ship at sea. The target ship is a 100,000-ton oil tanker. If we can sink this oil tanker, it means we can sink a 100,000-ton aircraft carrier!"

Seeing that anti-ship missiles were becoming popular everywhere to attack warships, the Indians could no longer remain calm. In their eyes, their BrahMos anti-ship cruise missiles were the most advanced in the world, but they were not known to the outside world.

Now, they also want to take advantage of this popularity. After all, their aircraft carrier is in poor condition and the catapult is nowhere in sight. The only thing they can do is to use this kind of anti-ship missile to boost morale.

"Unfortunately, the Kolkata-class has not yet been outfitted." Sunil said with some regret.

The Delhi-class destroyers were commissioned in the 1990s. They have a rough Russian appearance, with various radar antennas arranged in a messy manner. It looks disorganized and not at all modern.

Look at modern warships, they all have stealth appearance, and it would be best if they had four-sided phased array radars and vertical launch systems, which would be cool enough. India's first warship with such advanced features was the Kolkata-class, but unfortunately it was built slowly and it will take a long time to be launched and outfitted.

Therefore, we can only use the outdated Delhi class.

"Our Delhi-class warships are also modern warships. Their overall combat capability far exceeds that of the Eastern 052C and is comparable to their latest 052DL." After hearing Sunil's sigh, another senior official Mukherjee said.

"That's right!" Sunil's face lit up again. "Our Indian navy's combat effectiveness far exceeds that of the Orientals. Our experience in operating aircraft carriers far exceeds that of the Orientals. Our BrahMos anti-ship missiles are also the most advanced in the world! When will the target practice begin?"

"We are waiting for you now. Do you want to board our Delhi-class destroyer and see it with your own eyes?"

"Of course." Sunil nodded: "Let's go now!"

Half an hour later, a Sea King helicopter landed on the Bombay, the third Delhi-class destroyer, which was commissioned in 2001. It is considered the most advanced destroyer of the Indian Navy. It has a wide hull and looks very similar to the Soviet-era Kashin-class. However, the wide flight deck represents its new identity, which is in sharp contrast to the old Russian warships with narrow decks.

Various radar equipment are installed in a messy manner on the front bridge, all of which are Russian products. This avoids the problem of radar integration. On the decks on both sides of the bridge, there are two sets of quadruple anti-ship missile launchers.

This layout is very strange and unique. The Russians' is directly forward, while it is tilted outward. Other countries almost all have it arranged in the middle and rear, directing the tail flame into the sea, while its tail is directly facing the deck.

When it was originally designed, the Russian Sunburn supersonic anti-ship missile was to be placed here. However, during the construction process, for some unknown reason, the Indians downgraded the supersonic Sunburn anti-ship missile to the KH-35, which is the subsonic Uranus anti-ship missile, with the NATO code name SS-N-25. The performance of this missile is similar to that of the Harpoon, which can only be described as mediocre.

Now, one of the launchers has been replaced with a brand new BrahMos anti-ship missile launcher. This missile is more than eight meters long, and the launch tube is nearly nine meters long, making it much longer than the previous missile, and the launcher looks particularly special.

At this time, the cover of one of the launch tubes had been opened, revealing the warhead inside.

If it is an air defense missile, in order to ensure that the missile has good sealing inside, a fragile launch cover is generally needed at the front end, but this is not necessary for anti-ship missiles.

If you look from the front end of the launch tube cover, you can see the unique spike on the warhead, which gives a feeling of the MiG-21 fighter. It uses this unique nose air intake method, and the spike can also move back and forth to adjust the size of the air intake. This layout can be seen on the most powerful anti-ship missiles before the collapse of the Red Empire.

For example, P-500 and P-700 both have this structure, which also explains the identity of the missile: Although India has always emphasized that this was jointly developed with the Russians, in fact, the Russians just moved the previous structure over through archaeological research.

In fact, it also inherited many design shortcomings. For example, the missile-borne radar can only be installed inside this pointed cone. Although the diameter of the missile is as large as 0.67 meters, at most only a radar antenna with a diameter of 300 mm can be stuffed into this pointed cone. The search range of the missile-borne radar will not exceed kilometers, and there will also be a big problem of interference from the air intake lip.

From a technical point of view, the four-sided beveled air inlet used by the Oriental Eagle Strike-12 is the best solution. Of course, India will definitely not admit it, let alone use this layout.

Of course, it is impossible for any long-range anti-ship missile to always use its own radar to find targets. Other technical means are inevitably needed. Asan is simple and direct. He just moves the satellite navigation system on it. In this way, as long as the target is locked, the inertial system and satellite navigation autonomous flight in the early stage are enough to solve the problem.

After all, as an anti-ship missile with a maximum flight speed of up to Mach 2.8, it can fly more than 30 meters in one second. Its maximum range is about kilometers, which only takes five or six minutes. During this time, even if the target is speeding at knots, it can only move five or six nautical miles. By the time it flies to a distance where the missile-borne radar can detect the target, the target will never leave its search range.

As a supersonic anti-ship missile, the most important technology is of course its engine. According to India, this small integral ramjet engine was developed by their HAL company itself, but the technology ultimately comes from the Russians. Even if India manufactures it by itself, there will be many quality problems, not to mention designing it by itself.

But the Indians are still very proud. After all, this is their most advanced anti-ship missile. In their eyes, this missile can destroy an aircraft carrier!

"Sir Sunil, welcome to the guided missile destroyer INS Mumbai!" The captain led the team to welcome them: "We are ready and can launch missiles at any time. Do you want to see the missiles first?"

"No need, start the test as soon as possible. Is the sea area near the target ship clear?"

"Yes, the area within fifty kilometers around the target ship has been cleared."

"What else?"

"There's a high-powered tugboat," said the captain.

That was a 100,000-ton oil tanker. It would be a waste if it was sunk directly, so a tugboat was ready on the side. After the shooting was completed, it would quickly salvage the ship and then tow it back for dismantling. The scrap metal might even be used to build a few motorcycles!
"It won't be a mistake, will it?"

"How is that possible?" Mukherjee said, "How can our anti-ship missiles have an error of 50 kilometers?"

For an anti-ship missile with a range of about 300 kilometers, it is understandable that there will be an error of several kilometers when it reaches its destination. When it flies in front of the target, it may not be able to distinguish the target it should attack due to the large number of targets. At this time, it will choose the one with the largest echo. These are also the settings of the anti-ship missile.

After all, after flying over, the enemy fleet is mixed together. Unless there is a missile, a TV camera, and an AI, it is necessary to distinguish which is which. Otherwise, you have to hit the largest one. In the fleet, the largest one must also be the strongest, such as a large destroyer or even an aircraft carrier. It will be right to hit it.

Occasionally there will be accidental casualties, that is the supply ship, but attacking the supply ship can also make the opponent lose its combat capability.

In short, there is an error, but an error of fifty kilometers is impossible!
Sunil nodded.

"Let's go to the bridge."

The preparations were proceeding in an orderly manner, and calls could be heard from time to time.

"AWACS call, target position, east longitude..."

If you want to attack long-range targets, you need air power to provide target data. This responsibility naturally falls on the A-50EI early warning aircraft. India currently has only three such early warning aircraft. The body of the Il-76 has a large plate on top, which contains the radar system developed by the David people. Overall, it is quite advanced, but... there is no data link!

Because there is no data link, they can only rely on voice calls. This method is very backward on the modern battlefield. Not only is it easy to be interfered with, but the number of command aircraft will also be much smaller. However, this does not affect the pride in the hearts of the Asan. They have always believed that the performance of this early warning aircraft is the strongest and the best in the world.

"Enter the target coordinates into the missile! Confirm the firing parameters for the last time!"

"Attention, prepare to launch!"

The atmosphere in the bridge was somewhat tense.

"All preparations have been completed!"

"emission!"

Following the order, a ball of fire suddenly appeared on the left side of the bridge, where thick smoke billowed, as if it was on fire. In the blazing flames, a slender projectile left the launch tube and continued to fly forward, dragging thick smoke.

"The ramjet engine cannot start on its own. It needs the booster behind it to give it a certain speed." Pi Lai introduced on the side: "Also, almost all ship-borne missiles have solid launchers. Some smoke is normal, but when the ramjet engine starts, there won't be such a big noise."

"Report!" At this moment, someone ran up in a hurry: "There's a fire under the bridge!"

"what happened?"

"The airflow from the missile's solid rocket booster was too strong, and it blew away the baffle we placed there! There is an area at the rear that is made of composite materials..."

"Put out the fire quickly!"

Below the bridge, countless people held fire hoses and began to put out the fire. Fortunately, no major disaster occurred.

Almost at the same time, somewhere.

"Attention, GPS satellites are being hacked and time signals are being modified!"

"We have successfully taken control of the GPS and are modifying the time! However, we can only modify it by a few minutes at most. They will react soon."

"A few minutes will be enough."

Blocking the GPS signal and then releasing a prepared false signal can be used, but there are many problems. For example, it is impossible to get close to the target to do this.

So they changed their approach and directly hacked into the satellite to forcefully modify the time signal. As long as the time difference is a few microseconds, they would get wrong coordinate data, and a deviation of forty or fifty kilometers is normal.

There was a busy moment on the Bombay, and the missile launched had already discarded its booster and started its ramjet engine.

The airflow in front of the warhead is forcibly knocked into the interior of the warhead, and enters the engine at the rear along the channel. At high speed, the airflow is compressed without the need for a compressor, and then enters the combustion chamber. After helping the fuel to burn, it forms high-temperature and high-pressure gas that is ejected.

Whoosh! As if excited, the missile accelerated again. It was only Mach 1 just now, but now it was Mach 2, Mach 2.8... and soon it reached its maximum speed.

But at this moment, the computer inside the missile was confused.

what happened?

The data provided by the inertial navigation is not consistent with the data obtained by the GPS receiver!

The inertial navigation system is internal and relies on its own gyroscope rotation integration to obtain its own trajectory and then its own position information, while the GPS receiver is external and obtains position information through external signals.

These navigation methods are very common in various weapons and equipment. Generally speaking, inertial navigation is the main method, and satellite navigation is used for correction.

That’s right, it’s used for correction!

The error of inertial navigation will increase with time and distance, but satellite navigation will not. It will always ensure sufficiently high accuracy. Even for civilian signals, an accuracy of ten meters is much smaller than the accumulated error of inertial navigation.

This means that once there is a conflict between the two navigation information, satellite navigation must be used. After all, satellite navigation is used to correct inertial navigation errors.

However, it had just flown less than 50 kilometers when huge errors began to appear, which made the missile computer a little incomprehensible. Although it didn't understand, it didn't force it. It just corrected the mistakes and fixed the errors!

So, it modified its course according to satellite navigation data and embarked on a new route.

In the sky, the A-50EI early warning aircraft was still monitoring the target practice. Soon, the radar officer discovered something was wrong. The flight trajectory of the missile seemed to be a little off?

However, it might be that he was wrong. He rubbed his eyes and continued to look at the screen. At this time, the missile had already flown hundreds of kilometers and the deviation was getting bigger and bigger.

"Early warning aircraft reporting, the missile is off course!"

what?
When they received the news, everyone on the Bombay was stunned.

"How could it deviate? This is absolutely impossible. The AWACS must have made a mistake!" Pi Lai said, "Our missiles have high accuracy within 300 kilometers!"

The entire flight process took only five or six minutes, which means that in just a few words, the missile had flown half the distance.

“Where did it go?” Sunil asked.

"The early warning aircraft reported that it had deviated to the right side of the track. It has now deviated by about 30 kilometers."

The right side, already thirty kilometers off the track?
Sunil's eyelids suddenly twitched violently. "Is it flying towards our tugboat?"

"Yes, it is heading towards the tugboat. Quick, quick, notify the tugboat to get out of the way immediately!"

At this moment, everyone felt the cold sweat on their backs. It was a target boat! In fact, even if the tugboat was 20 kilometers away, there would be no danger. The accuracy of the anti-ship missile was still very high.

Who would have thought that after the missile flew out, it lost its accuracy and flew in another direction!

Tugboat, hurry up!
When they got the news, everyone on the tugboat was stunned. The captain was the first to react: "Faster, full speed, full speed!"

In order to demonstrate the performance of this missile, they launched it at the maximum range, so as long as they left a certain distance, the missile would not be able to catch up.

But it's too late!

At this time, the missile had flown fifty kilometers away and had deviated by more than forty kilometers. At this time, it climbed to about one hundred meters in the sky, turned on the radar, and searched the sea surface.

A target clearly came into its sight, this was it!
The missile adjusted its direction for the last time, dived to a height of ten meters above the sea, and headed towards the tugboat!

On the early warning aircraft, the radar officer looked at the bright spot on the screen and muttered, "Impossible, impossible, how could this happen?"

"Poor guys, the best thing to do now is to jump off the boat quickly, they can't escape."

On the tugboat, a lookout had already seen the missile flying close to the sea surface. It made an S maneuver smoothly, as if showing off its maneuverability. Its body danced on the waves, demonstrating its skillful flying skills.

However, everyone on the tugboat was terrified. To them, this was the coming of death!
"Oh, damn it!" The captain's face was bleak. Just as he was about to give the order to jump off the ship, he heard a terrible buzzing sound.

Boom!
The BrahMos missile hit the target ship at a speed of 2.8 Mach, directly deforming the target ship. The next second, a huge explosion sounded.

boom!
The 602-kilogram warhead exploded! The BrahMos anti-ship missile is designed to deal with large warships, so its charge is the same as that of the C, and the power of this missile is also quite powerful.

The small tugboat could not withstand the impact.

At this time, on the other side, the relevant departments were also in chaos.

"What's going on? Why is there a clock signal deviation in our satellite?"

"Quick, readjust the time immediately and calibrate it to the standard time! Damn it! If I find out that someone is deliberately messing with this, we will twist his head off!"

Now, all kinds of activities around the world rely on satellite navigation systems. GPS has been having problems recently, which has made many users dissatisfied. Beidou Navigation will gain more market share. This happened again today. Fortunately, it was only a satellite error over the Indian Ocean, and it did not cause any major problems for Europe.

(End of this chapter)