In the Russian-Ukrainian war, which lasted nearly 2 years, the biggest loss of the Russian Navy was the sinking of the missile cruiser "Moskva", the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. The missile cruiser "Moskva" is also the world's first anti-ship missile over-the-horizon operation.
After World War II, all anti-ship missile operations were carried out within the radar visual range, that is, within the range of 30 to 40 km. The radar line-of-sight of an anti-ship missile refers to the distance at which the fire control mine reaches the horizon at sea level, beyond which it cannot be seen. This distance varies with the height of the radar platform.
Although many anti-ship missiles that have experienced actual combat have a range beyond the radar line-of-sight, such as the Styx, Exocet, Harpoon, C-802, etc., there has been no over-the-horizon strike. In 1982, the French Exocet sank the British Sheffield, and the missile was only more than 30 kilometers away from the target when it was launched. In 1988, the American Harpoon and Standard 2 wars Iranian missile boats, also fought at a distance of 20 to 30 km. Since then, China's C-802 has fought many times in actual combat, striking Israeli Saar-5 frigates and American-made stealth ships, all within radar visual range. The Bear-3 supersonic anti-ship missile misfire that hit the fishing boat was not a launch with a clear target, which was equivalent to a blind launch.
It was not until 2022 that Ukraine used the "Neptune" anti-ship missile, which happened to use the radar waveguide effect of a suitable atmospheric environment to sink the Russian Navy's "Moskva" missile cruiser at an over-the-horizon distance of 100 kilometers, and achieved the results of the world's first over-the-horizon anti-ship missile.
For the first time, the Ukrainian side announced the ** of the Ukrainian army's launch of the "Neptune" anti-ship missile when it sank the Russian Navy's missile cruiser Moskva seven months ago.
Seven months after the sinking of the "Moskva", the Ukrainian Pravda newspaper published a ** display, which first revealed that the Ukrainian army's shore-to-ship missile units launched two "Neptune" anti-ship missiles off the coast of the Black Sea and sank a large cruiser. Thus put an end to the debate about what exactly the cruiser "Moskva" sank.
The two R360 "Uranus" anti-ship missiles flew at high subsonic speeds and attacked the flagship missile cruiser "Moskva" of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, about 100 kilometers from the coast, at a sea-skimming altitude, and sank the ship, which was also the first cruiser to be sunk by anti-ship missiles after World War II.
The R360 "Uranus" is a Ukrainian modification of the Russian X-35 "Neptune" anti-ship missile, a light high-subsonic sea-skimming anti-ship missile similar to the French Exocet, the American Harpoon and the Chinese YJ-83. The flight speed of the Neptune missile is about 0At Mach 8, the flight time to a range of 100 kilometers is 6 minutes, and the "Moskva", which sails at 20 knots during this time, can sail less than 4 kilometers. The "Neptune" missile can be turned on by radar when it is 30 kilometers away from the target, and it is easy to capture the target. Therefore, there is no need for data link input to correct the route halfway.
The "Moskva" is the lead ship of the Glorious-class missile cruiser with a displacement of 11,500 tons, belonging to the Tyrannosaurus Rex of prehistoric times, which was started in 1976, launched in 1979, and officially commissioned in 1983. In 2017, it was upgraded and equipped with 16 P-1000 "Volcanic Rock" supersonic heavy anti-ship missiles. The "Moskva" is equipped with an earlier model of the "Reif" S-300F long-range ship-to-air missile (the ship version of the S-300 missile), which does not have the ability to strike sea-skimming flying anti-ship missiles, and the anti-missile capability of the 6-seat AK630 type 6-barreled 30 mm close-in anti-aircraft gun is not strong, and it is very likely to be broken through by Ukrainian anti-ship missiles.
However, without shore-to-ship missiles and an over-the-horizon target designation system, it is impossible for anti-ship missiles to hit over-the-horizon targets more than 100 kilometers away.
According to intelligence, NATO has deployed the MQ-4C "Mermaid Poseidon" strategic drone in the Black Sea, which is the naval version of the "Global Hawk" drone, as well as P-8 anti-submarine patrol aircraft, which can conduct wide-area reconnaissance and target designation. Due to the delay in the distribution of NATO intelligence information and the reception of the Ukrainian side, it was reported that it was about 1 hour, which is already a god speed. However, it was not enough to carry out the binding of missile fire control elements, because the "Moskva" could run more than 30 kilometers in one hour. Therefore, after receiving the information on the location of the Russian ship sent by NATO, the Ukrainian side still needs to use its own reconnaissance force to detect detailed and real-time information.
That's where over-the-horizon radar systems come in. Ukraine used a shore-based radar with over-the-horizon capabilities, which finalized the exact coordinates of the Moskva.
The radar applies the principle of atmospheric waveguide, that is, the superrefraction effect between seawater and the atmosphere, and uses the superrefraction effect of the evaporation waveguide on the sea surface to detect targets. This over-the-horizon radar can be used to provide target designation for anti-ship missiles, and the positioning accuracy and resolution are close to the same frequency of in-line of sight radar detection, which can provide target parameters at the level of fire control, and the maximum over-the-horizon search range is up to 250 km.
The "Mineral-ME" (Mineral-ME) shipborne multifunctional active and passive over-the-horizon radar system (NATO code name ** station, which our military calls the "Mineral" radar) on Russia's "Modern" class missile destroyers, as well as the imitation 366 radar used by the Chinese Navy's 052D and 054A, have applied the principle of atmospheric waveguide over-the-horizon.
The intellectual property rights of this radar technology are owned by Ukraine, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Scientific Research Institute "Quantum Radio" of the Ukrainian Defense Industry Group inherited the "Ore-ME" over-the-horizon radar technology. Ukraine has equipped its shore defense missile forces with a land-based version of the "Ore-ME", a radar that was given to the United States in previous years for targeted research.
However, the sinking of the Moskva cruiser by Ukrainian anti-ship missiles was generally a coincidence, because the weather conditions at that time were suitable for over-the-horizon detection using the principle of atmospheric waveguides.
After hearing the specific details of the sinking of the "Moskva," the navies of the United States, Europe, and the West must have been anxious and anxious. This is because China is the best country that applies the most active and passive over-the-horizon radars in the world.
In the 90s of the last century, when China introduced the "modern" class missile destroyers from Russia, it also introduced the "Ore-ME" (* Taiwan) active and passive over-the-horizon radar, which has been widely used in the over-the-horizon guidance of domestic anti-ship missiles through imitation, and this set of radar is equipped with dozens of missile destroyers and frigates of various types such as 052C, 052D and 054A, and there is also a set of "Taiwan" radar on the aircraft carrier "Liaoning".
Over-the-horizon anti-ship warfare is not as simple as imagined, and requires a complete set of long-range reconnaissance and target designation systems. There are few countries in the world that are able to effectively use advanced reconnaissance-command-fire control systems for over-the-horizon anti-ship operations at a distance of more than 100 km.