Sea skimming is a technique many

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM or ASM) 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. ...

s and some fighter or strike aircraft use to avoid

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

and infrared detection and to lower the probability of being shot down during their approach to the target.

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 near 2 meters (6 ft). When under attack, a warship can detect sea-skimming missiles only after they appear over the horizon (about 28 to 46 km from the ship), allowing about 25 to 60 seconds of warning.

Advantages

By flying low to the sea, missiles decrease the range at which the target ships can detect them by a significant amount. Flying at a lower altitude increases the amount of time the missile is under the horizon from the perspective of the target ship, making it harder to detect due to radar clutter from the sea and similar effects. The real-life success of sea skimming depends on its exact implementation, the sophistication of the detection equipment, as well as the infrared and radar signature of the missile. Sea skimming can significantly reduce the available response time that a ship's

missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear weapon, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic mi ...

s have to work within, making these missiles significantly harder to defend against. Sea skimming can also increase the range of a missile, by relying on ground effects.

Disadvantages

The use of sea skimming increases the risk of water impact by the missile before reaching the target due to weather conditions,

rogue wave A rogue wave is an abnormally large ocean wave. Rogue wave may also refer to: * Optical rogue waves, are rare pulses of light analogous to rogue or freak ocean waves. * Rogue Wave Software, a software company * Rogue Wave (band), an American in ...

software bug A software bug is a design defect ( bug) in computer software. A computer program with many or serious bugs may be described as ''buggy''. The effects of a software bug range from minor (such as a misspelled word in the user interface) to sev ...

s and other factors. Sea skimming also hinders

target acquisition Target acquisition is the detection and identification of the location of a target in sufficient detail to permit the effective employment of lethal and non-lethal means. The term is used for a broad area of applications. A "target" here is an e ...

, as many of the principles that hinder the target's detection of the missile also hinder the missile's detection of the target. Sea skimming involves a significant computational load, increasing the required processing power and cost.

Possible defenses

Several systems are capable of defeating sea skimming weapons.

Gun-based CIWS

Missile-based CIWS

Chaff

ECM

Use in major wars

French-made

Exocet The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from Warship, surface vessels, Submarine, submarines, Helicopter, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guil ...

missiles were used by

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

(including the mortal wounding of HMS ''Sheffield'') and by Iraq against USS ''Stark'' in the Persian Gulf during the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

. The Argentinian pilots of the Super Étendard planes that attacked HMS ''Sheffield'' were also skimming the sea at very low level. They increased their altitude only for a very short period to get final target information for the attack with their Agave radars. During the

2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, two Ukrainian-made R-360 Neptune sea-skimming cruise missiles were claimed to have struck and sank the Russian cruiser Moskva.

References

{{Reflist Anti-ship missiles Low flying Missile types Naval warfare