SS-N-22 Sunburn is the NATO reporting name for two unrelated Soviet

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A goo ...

s. Although the missiles were very different, distinguishing between them is difficult because their ship-mounted launching containers were identical. Confusion was exacerbated by the Soviet practice of mixing missile types within a class of ships. It was therefore not confirmed that the "SS-N-22" actually referenced two different missiles until after the

fall of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

Chelomei rocket

One of the SS-N-22s was the P-80 Zubr, designed by a team led by

Vladimir Chelomei Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey or Chelomei (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Челоме́й; 30 June 1914 – 8 December 1984) was a Soviet engineer of Ukrainian ethnicity and designer in missile program of the former Sovie ...

. The Zubr was rocket-propelled and armed with a 250 kilogram warhead. It was carried by early-model ''Sovremenny''-class destroyers and ''Tarantul''-class corvettes. The submarine-launched version of this missile was also designated as an SS-N-22 Sunburn by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

but was known to the Soviets as the P-100 Oniks.

MKB Raduga model

The other, unrelated SS-N-22 was the

Raduga Raduga (russian: Радуга:'rainbow') can refer to : * MKB Raduga, a Russian maker of missile systems formerly known as OKB Raduga * VBK-Raduga, an unmanned reentry capsule used to return material from the Russian Mir space station * Raduga (sa ...

P-270 Moskit The P-270 Moskit (russian: П-270 «Москит»; en, Mosquito) is a Soviet supersonic ramjet powered anti-ship cruise missile. Its GRAU designation is 3M80, air launched variant is the Kh-41 and its NATO reporting name is SS-N-22 Sunburn ...

. It was

ramjet A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an as ...

-propelled (though launched by a small solid-fuel rocket), and was carried by later-model

Sovremenny class destroyer The ''Sovremenny'' class, Soviet designation Project 956 ''Sarych'' (buzzard), is a class of anti-ship and anti-aircraft guided-missile destroyers of the Soviet and later Russian Navy. The ships are named after qualities, with "Sovremenny" tra ...

Tarantul class corvette The Soviet designation Project 1241 ''Molniya'' (russian: Молния, , Lightning) are a class of Russian missile corvettes (large missile cutters in Soviet classification). They have the NATO reporting name Tarantul (not to be confused with ...

s, and several smaller warships. This weapon has a top speed of Mach 3. The high speed of the missile means a typical response time for the target of only 25 to 30 seconds, giving a target little time to react. Moskit can be armed with a warhead of 320 kg. Another version of this weapon is called the ASM-MMS or Kh-41; it is intended to be launched by a Su-33. The

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

acquired SS-N-22 launchers and missiles (specifically, the for-export 3M-80E Moskit variant) with a 1999–2000 purchase of two ''Sovremenny'' destroyers from Russia.According to Russia, the PRC funded the development of the SS-N-22 version for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). It has the designation 3M-80MBE, and this version differs from earlier versions mainly in having increased range (now beyond 220 km; 240 km has been quoted). These new missiles will be first installed on board the second pair of

s. A total of 500 SS-N-22 AShM were ordered by the PRC for the four Russian-built

s. With the exception of the first 20, these are the 3M-80MBE variant. The PRC has stockpiled roughly 15 SS-N-22 missiles per launch tube (each destroyer having a total of 8 launchers in two quadruple configurations). It is speculated that the PLAN intends to use the missiles against

carrier battle group A carrier battle group (CVBG) is a naval fleet consisting of an aircraft carrier capital ship and its large number of escorts, together defining the group. The ''CV'' in ''CVBG'' is the United States Navy hull classification code for an ai ...

s deployed by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in the event of a confrontation with the Republic of China (

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

). Six SS-N-22 launchers were also present on the Soviet

ekranoplan A ground-effect vehicle (GEV), also called a wing-in-ground-effect (WIG), ground-effect craft, wingship, flarecraft or ekranoplan (russian: экранопла́н – "screenglider"), is a vehicle that is able to move over the surface by gainin ...

''Lun''.

Operators

; ; ; ;

Chelomei rocket

MKB Raduga model

Operators

See also

References

External links