A Russian firm is marketing a version of the Klub cruise missile that can be carried in a 40 foot shipping container. The launcher and the missile have to slide out of the container before firing, thus limiting where it can be placed on a ship, particularly your typical container ship. But you could get two or three of these shipping container Klubs on most cargo ships, turning the vessel into warship.
The Klub missile is a key weapon for the Kilo submarine. Weighing two tons, and fired from a 533mm (21 inch) torpedo tube, the 3M54 has a 440 pound warhead. The anti-ship version has a range of 300 kilometers, and speeds up to 3,000 kilometers an hour during its last minute or so of flight. There is also an air launched and ship launched version. A land attack version does away with the high speed final approach feature, and has an 880 pound warhead.
What makes the anti-ship version of the 3M54 particularly dangerous is its final approach, which begins when the missile is about 15 kilometers from its target. Up to that point, the missile travels at an altitude of about a hundred feet. This makes the missile more difficult to detect. The "high speed approach" (via the use of additional rockets) means that it covers that last fifteen kilometers in less than twenty seconds. This makes it difficult for current anti-missile weapons to take it down.
The 3M54 is similar to earlier, Cold War era Russian anti-ship missiles, like the 3M80 ("Sunburn"), which has a larger warhead (660 pounds) and shorter range (120 kilometers.) The 3M80 was still in development at the end of the Cold War, and was finally put into service about a decade ago. Even older (it entered service in the 1980s) is the P700 ("Shipwreck"), with a 550 kilometers range and 1,650 pound warhead.
All these missiles are considered "carrier killers," but it's not known how many of them would have to hit a carrier to knock it out of action, much less sink it. Moreover, Russian missiles have little combat experience, and a reputation for erratic performance. Quality control was never a Soviet strength, but the Russians are getting better, at least in the civilian sector. The military manufacturers appear to have been slower to adapt.
Still, it is unusual for a firm to offer such a weapon for concealed transport on a merchant ship. So far, there have not been any buyers. Or, rather, the manufacturer will not admit to any sales. While these missiles are of questionable effectiveness in wartime, they would likely be much more potent if used for a surprise attack on a military or civilian target.
April 21st, 2010, 13:06
American Patriot
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
Quote:
Still, it is unusual for a firm to offer such a weapon for concealed transport on a merchant ship. So far, there have not been any buyers. Or, rather, the manufacturer will not admit to any sales. While these missiles are of questionable effectiveness in wartime, they would likely be much more potent if used for a surprise attack on a military or civilian target.
Oh cool, another toy that could be used to carry a dirty bomb for terrorists.
While I believe merchant ships should protect themselves - who is going to determine who buys these things?
April 21st, 2010, 14:58
vector7
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
I can see where the PLAN could work this strategy in.
April 26th, 2010, 04:17
Ryan Ruck
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
I strongly suspect this is a much bigger deal than is being let on to. Keep in mind, the Klub is a supersonic, nuclear capable cruise missile capable of hitting land, sea, and underwater targets.
Defence experts are warning of a new danger of ballistic weapons proliferation after a Russian company started marketing a cruise missile that can be launched from a shipping container.
25 Apr 2010
It is feared that the covert Club-K missile attack system could prove "game-changing" in fighting wars with small countries, which would gain a remote capacity to mount multiple missiles on boats, trucks or railways.
Iran and Venezuela have already shown an interest in the Club-K Container Missile System which could allow them to carry out pre-emptive strikes from behind an enemy's missile defences.
Defence experts say the system is designed to be concealed as a standard 40ft shipping container that cannot be identified until it is activated.
Priced at an estimated £10 million, each container is fitted with four cruise anti-ship or land attack missiles. The system represents an affordable "strategic level weapon".
Some experts believe that if Iraq had the Club-K system in 2003 it would have made it impossible for America to invade with any container ship in the Gulf a potential threat.
Club-K is being marketed at the Defence Services Asia exhibition in Malaysia this week.
Novator, the manufacturer, is an advanced missile specialist that would not have marketed the system without Moscow's approval. It has released an emotive marketing film complete with dramatic background music.
It shows Club-K containers stowed on ships, trucks and trains as a neighbouring country prepares to invade with American style military equipment.
The enemy force is wiped out by the cruise missile counter attack.
Russia has already prompted concern in Washington by selling Iran the sophisticated S-300 anti-aircraft missile system that would make targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities very difficult.
"This Club-K is game changing with the ability to wipe out an aircraft carrier 200 miles away. The threat is immense in that no one can tell how far deployed your missiles could be," said Robert Hewson, editor of Jane's Air-Launched Weapons, who first reported on the Club-K developments.
"What alerted me to this was that the Russians were advertising it at specific international defence event and they have marketed it very squarely at anyone under threat of action from the US."
Reuben Johnson, a Pentagon defence consultant, said the system would be a "real maritime fear for anyone with a waterfront".
"This is ballistic missile proliferation on a scale we have not seen before because now you cannot readily identify what's being used as a launcher because it's very carefully disguised.
"Someone could sail off your shore looking innocuous then the next minute big explosions are going off at your military installations."
April 26th, 2010, 10:46
Toad
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
$10 mil. Damn that seems cheap for the headaches it just created.
April 26th, 2010, 13:07
American Patriot
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
No. 15.47100 million U.S. dollars
April 26th, 2010, 17:51
Toad
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
Oops, 10.0 mil british pounds, misread that.
April 26th, 2010, 18:05
vector7
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
American Free Press has confirmed that the huge Chinese shipping conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. has a significant presence at the Lazaro Cardenas seaport in Mexico, as well as other Mexican ports. The company has had effective control of both ends of the Panama Canal for the last seven years.
The Mexican ports link to the budding Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) toll road network by way of railroad cargo lines that head from the ports across Mexico to the United States border, providing a conduit to bypass U.S. West Coast seaports and haul ever-more massive quantities of imports into the United States.
The TTC is part of a planned vast network of tollways that, unless derailed by a growing number of concerned citizens, will ripple through many parts of the United States, functioning as a delivery network for goods flooding into the United States from foreign factories, although it appears U.S.-made goods would be exported via the same system.
Hutchison Whampoa�s Pacific Port at Lazaro Cardenas, located in the Mexican state of Michoacan, is especially significant. As reported by AFP on Dec. 18, 2006, officials from Lazaro Cardenas met in March 2006 with Kansas City, Mo., officials to sign �an historic cooperative trade agreement to establish a new trans-Pacific trade corridor that will alleviate delays and congestion at [U.S.] West Coast ports.�
This is another way of saying that at least part of the stream of imported merchandise flowing into those West Coast ports such as the one in Long Beach, Calif., could be redirected to the Cardenas port so these goods can be hauled into the United States with even greater efficiency.
Kansas City, located about 1,000 miles from the U.S.- Mexican border, has been slated as a major trade hub and U.S. Customs inspection location. As noted by Kansas City SmartPort Inc. President Chris Gutierrez, who was interviewed in early December by AFP, Kansas City has the infrastructure, location and overall assets to serve this function well.
Critics charge that having a major U.S. inspection point so far inland may create huge gaps in monitoring exactly what kinds of things are being shipped into the United States�which doesn�t sit well with American trucker-support groups such as Owner-Operated Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).
OOIDA warns that under-trained Mexican truck drivers, in their poorly inspected trucks, pose a danger on the highways and could help bring terrorist elements into the United States.
According to Hutchison Whampoa�s own web site, this shipping conglomerate has a single-berth terminal situated in the highly industrial, deep-water Lazaro Cardenas port and plans a second phase there, which �includes the development of an 85-hectare deep-water, green field site with 1,350 meters of berth.�
Hutchison Whampoa, which controls 12% of all container port capacity in the world and employs 200,000 people, has long been alleged to be either an arm of the Chinese military or beholden to the communist regime�which considers the United States an adversary. This situation has troubled prominent Americans, such as the now deceased Adm. Thomas H Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who pointed out some years ago that Hutchison Whampoa already controls the Atlantic and Pacific seaports of the Panama Canal�that century-old American-made commercial waterway connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific that has a military function and is arguably one of the most strategic chokepoints on the globe.
So, against the backdrop of China�s current massive military build-up, the communist nation�s presence in various Western Hemisphere ports should be watched very carefully. This buildup, as repeatedly emphasized by Gus Stelzer, a retired General Motors executive, author and trade analyst, is funded to a large extent by the huge profits China makes selling goods tariff-free in the United States.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to run gargantuan trade deficits with China. As a proposed remedy, Stelzer advocates levying tariffs against China and other nations whose merchandise floods America while American industries, undercut by the onslaught, are forced to downsize, close or go offshore in order to survive.
Rarely, if ever, are American goods allowed to be sold in these nations anywhere near the extent that their goods are sold in the United States, says Stelzer.
OTHER VENTURES
Notably, Hutchison Whampoa�a company whose affiliates delve into the cruise ship business, telecommunications, real estate, hotels, PARKnSHOP grocery stores, Fortress electronics and housewares, along with energy, infrastructure, etc.�has a number of other Western Hemisphere port operations.
Hutchison Whampoa has the Ensenada International Terminal (EIT), �strategically situated 110 kilometers south of the U.S.-Mexico border along the Pacific Ocean,� Hutchison Whampoa literature states. It adds that EIT has undergone extensive redevelopment involving construction, dredging and new equipment purchases.
Another port maintained by Hutchison Whampoa is the Terminal Internacional de Manzanillo (TIMSA), which started its operations in 1999 and is �aimed at developing the container market on Mexico�s Pacific coast. Located at the Mexican port of Manzanillo, TIMSA is ideally situated for Asian trade with Mexico City and Guadalajara, as well as nearby industrialized states,� according to Hutchison Whampoa�s web site.
Hutchison Whampoa�s Panama Ports Company (PPC) operates the ports of Cristobal and Balboa located at each end of the Panama Canal (large expansion projects are proceeding at both ports).
The shipping company�which has 15 mainland China operations�also runs a Western Hemisphere port in Buenos Aires, consisting of a state-of-the-art terminal with two ship berths, a container freight station and a logistics center; as well as in the Bahamas, where Hutchison Whampoa�s Freeport Container Port, a deepwater operation, provides �a transhipment center for the eastern seaboard of the Americas and the principal East/West line haul routes throughout the region,� according to company literature.
COMMUNIST CONNECTIONS
Hutchison Whampoa�s top executives include Li Tzar Kuoi, aged 41, who has been an executive director since 1995 and deputy chairman since 1999. Kuoi also sits on what is called the �Standing Committee of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People�s Political Consultative Conference of the People�s Republic of China.�
The top Hutchison Whampoa executive, Li Ka Shing, is considered the wealthiest Chinese individual in the world. Kuoi, named above, is Li Ka Shing�s eldest son.
According to the Internet encyclopedia, Wikipedia, �Li was invited by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to become a member of the board of directors of the China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC) to support the economic reform initiatives that Deng was attempting to develop.
CITIC is China�s largest conglomerate and is 42% owned by the government of China. It serves as the chief investment arm of China�s central government and holds ministry status on the Chinese State Council. Li served only one year on CITIC�s board before resigning his directorship. For many years, he served as vice chairman of the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (HSBC).�
Various reports over the last few years, including a NewsMax.com report of June 13, 2001, note that Hutchison Whampoa�s subsidiary, HIT, has �business ventures with the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) which is owned by the People�s Liberation Army.� HIT stands for Hutchison International Terminals.
COSCO, which failed in a notorious Clinton administration- backed attempt to lease the former U.S. naval base in Long Beach, Calif., has been criticized for shipping Chinese missiles, missile components, jet fighters and other weapons technologies to nations such as Libya, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, NewsMax reported in 2001.
April 26th, 2010, 19:26
Ryan Ruck
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
(And what's with that red pickup on top the ship that looks like it was Photoshopped in?)
Wow, I missed the truck. :)
Was too focused on finding a pic with enough containers to illustrate the enormity of thousands arriving here everyday at our ports and across our borders.
How many armed containers would it take in a multinational coordinated strike to put a dent in your military's follow up capabilities?
April 26th, 2010, 23:20
vector7
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
A Russian company has unveiled a unique "Pandora's Box" cruise missile system which is deployed and can be fired from a standard 40-foot shipping container, from ships, rail cars or even off the back of a truck.
Morinformsystem-Agat JSC is marketing the system as a take-anywhere weapon able to destroy ships and attack land targets with the Novator Klub-K 3M-54TE missile, one of the deadliest cruise missiles in existence.
"We call it Pandora's box," said a company representative at MAKS air show, where the weapon made its first appearance.
The Club K missile system, containing four rounds, is self-contained in the sea container along with two crew members in a sealed cabin with their communications and targeting systems.
The weapon is fed information from satellites, then raised to a vertical position from the container by hydraulic rams, and fired. It is then guided inertially to the approximate target area, up to 270 kilometers away, where it finds the target using radar.
The missile then accelerates to around 700 meters per second to hit the target with its penetrator high-explosive warhead.
The maker will not discuss potential customers but says the system has attracted "considerable interest" from abroad.
August 19th, 2011, 22:27
American Patriot
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
No, Peterle, they aren't xrayed.
There are thousands a day unloaded in California that are ignored or not touched. Sorry... wrong
August 19th, 2011, 23:21
Ryan Ruck
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
Yep, there are so many thousands of these containers moving in and out that right now it is impossible to scan them all. And if we did stop and scan them all, our supply chain and chain of consumer goods would grind to a halt.
August 19th, 2011, 23:26
American Patriot
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan Ruck
Yep, there are so many thousands of these containers moving in and out that right now it is impossible to scan them all. And if we did stop and scan them all, our supply chain and chain of consumer goods would grind to a halt.
Which we ought to do with all the fucking Chinese SHIT anyway.
August 19th, 2011, 23:40
Ryan Ruck
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
We should be able to buy enough scanners to scan everything instead of funding all the welfare we do.
August 19th, 2011, 23:53
American Patriot
Re: Arming Container Ships With Anti-Ship Missiles
We should turn around some of that fucking Chinese shit, and sink it in the Pacific.