Updated: Rats, looks like the Russian firm deleted the video from YouTube. Hopefully it will resurface at some point. Here’s a screen capture of the vid. And it reappears. (Thanks GF!)
Continuing with the anti-access, area-denial (A2/AD) theme, this marketing video has been making the rounds. It comes from Kontsern-Morinformsistema-Agat, a Russian company that claims to be building a new cruise missile system, the Club-K, that can be hidden inside a standard 40-foot shipping container.
According to this Reuters news story, the missiles at least are the real deal, coming from Russian builder Novator. The article contains some breathless quotes from a writer for Jane’s Defense Weekly; including the claim that the shipping container missile is a “carrier killer.” This is getting to be like the tech world where every new mobile gadget is labeled a potential “iPhone killer.”
They’ve definitely put together an impressive looking marketing vid (that bizarrely starts off with the theme from “Born Free” and finishes up with “Gladiator”) showing the containerized missiles innocuously moved about on a semi, a railcar and a merchant vessel, only to unleash its payload on an unsuspecting enemy. Oddly, the targeted enemy appears to be outfitted with American tanks, helicopters and aircraft, minus any identifying markings of course.
– Greg
{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
Those palm trees remind me of Cuba and Venezuela…
Club-K? Several decades ago we shelved a system that allowed us to launch ICBMs from cargo aircraft. Reason? Too destabilizing. Now this. Might as well figure out how to launch many cruise missiles from a cargo plane since no one else seems interested in stability
time to sell more weapons to all those former soviet states. we can play hardball to commies.
Yes… and the last music comes from C&C Generals… what a stupid video…
Well we'll keep disarming and Russia will try and sell destabilizing weapons to our enemies to specifically target against us.
However, due to the law of unintended consequences the minute we learn a country has these systems we can target all their infrastructure, blow up every ship, truck and train in the entire country, you know, just to be sure they don't have cruise missiles. Kinda makes the rules of engagement simple. Anything that moves by sea, road or rail KILL IT!!
Well, it was a matter of time. A long time in this case. Both Harpoon and Exocet have been sold as truck mounted coastal missile batteries, and Tomahawk used to include a similar truck launched variant, so it's not really new.
Btw, I just so dig being the Big Bad Blue team !
Wow, blue force should've invested in some CAP, ADA, and EW. Glad we have plenty to counter this 'Hugo Chavez please buy our stuff' video….
Blue forces could also practice asset dispersal.
Does Obama get it yet?!
With what hes' done to procurement–no–and he never will until another attack is launched on U S assets or soil.
Only way to stop attacks on home soil by terrorist or enemy militant type of activity is to solve the problems on home turf. You cannot convert homie domestic talibs as we learned from vietnam but you can stop them from getting to your home soil and use all this war money on defencive systems.
Then the only way for the sandN to attack us is to make war with us insteads of training terrorists. No one will defend country making war with us or any country that defends them because we are rigth and we only need to strike their infrastuctural targets to keep them from trying but guerrilla invasion wich will not affect us.. :) :)
Except none of those systems were designed to masquerade as civilian trucks. As bobbymike suggests above, the existence of these systems in a county's inventory would make every shipping container and by extension most rolling stock, container ships and trucks, valid military targets.
And right now maybe you could explain how we NATO countries transport all our military supplies before they reach the battlefield ?
that's right standard shipping container
Its like the cop law of how it is not enough to punish the griminals. We must stop them from making it or we will loose.
Russia is understands the situation better than China. They all know they are technologically 20 years behind us and that every second western democracy hasnt yet evolved perfectly to mach the old prhase capitalism=communism we will be gaining leaad faster and faster. Chinese leaders are submitting as that is their nature that their population is done but hope that we give them little shot as it has allways been in european war history that enemy leaders get last days of luxury if they make secret deals and lead their troops to loss by hopeless conformation. Chinese people in west are quite un aware of this population problem solving figure so they play quite much as dead as they do. The Russia how ever know the true goals and most russian educated are allready loathing the system so much they have unfortunately understood that Stalin didnt work out just because he was leader and as such leader of not the current economically ruling system in back then increasingly lobbying capitalistik world.
So what I ques you mean is "Get the defence systems ready. When the Russian next generation gets they are allready fucked they will just nuke as and let the nuclear winter be."?
I may be naive here, but isn't this a clear violation of the war convention? This is clearly a case of using civilians as camouflage. It seems that the use of this system would essentially give permission to your adversary to knock out all of your shipping.
Which leaves the system only feasible for groups/terrorists with no homeland…
If it's a Q Ship type arrangement and there is no declared war, it's piracy.
If it's in time of war, merchant shipping is a legitimate target, and also fully entitled to defend itself.
Freighters heading Somalia way need this system. A speedboat load of Somali pirates meets a large PGW… Or some kind of modular phalanx system.
WAY COOL! Just think, if the Iranians or NORKS ddi the same to their ballistic missiles, they then could get them near enough to their targets. Then they won't have to try and build bigger missiles and/or miniaturise their 'gun type' nuclear warheads. Brilliant! I love it.
Lets take it one step further and put a nuke on one to create a EMP over Chicago
ding ding ding we have a winner. I have been talking about this exact situation for the past 2 years.
Is that the Pirates of the Caribbean theme music toward the end of the video?
Can we buy these for LCS?
ROFL
Very scary as any cargo ship can be equipped with these & fire on any US coastal city with ease.
I had some preminition about these some years back.
Now its pending Fact.
Very scary.
Time to upgrade US Customs for container inspections.
This isn't new: http://ericpalmer.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/msm-lo… Palmer has posted here many times including a valiant cry to save the Raptor.
The problem is as these weapons get distributed and A gives B gives C, the ability to identify the prime attacker gets very hard. How far can these missile go? Can they hit rigs from Mexico, NYC from a ship several miles out?
As your post below on Iran indicates, it seems no big deal that Russia and Iran do not feel the need to identify weapons. Russians are playing to the asymmetric war planners. I would be getting those 1000kw lasers ready for production……
Too bad the Pentagon scraped the Airborne Laser program.. I agree though.
This is far from a "slick" marketing video. It's actually rather ham-fisted and one dimensional.
well, one way to stop them is to make sure that all containers from countries that don't like the US…no let me re-write that, that only countries that are freindly to the US are allowed to stow their containers on top of the ships container stacks. Hmmm….that still doesn't help either does it? I mean then you are talking about trying to make only a few containers cover hundreds of stacks. Let me re-think this.
Russia, guess what? US gaming companies possessed graphics "that good' in 2002.
Little behind?
Anyone know off-hand how long these take to setup, fuel, and launch? It seams there would be a period of vulnerability in there.
I tried reading this, but your English is terrible…I'm sure you make a good point in there somewhere.
I would say that these are pre fueled. Erection time would be under 5 minutes and if they use GPS or the Russian equivalent to it, migt be ready to launch in 15 minutes. Not much of a window of opportunity to do much of anything. Something with a 250-500 mile range would make it pretty difficult to do anything about them once launched.
I would actually say less more like under 10 minutes. I believe there solid fuel so right there no fueling and you could acquire your target before you started setting up.
Another question, what kind of guidance system does it have? How would it track targets, etc–just a neophyte question
Main guidance system is inertial, active homing in terminal phase may be present, depending on variant. 3-M54E may be capable of mid-course corrections via SARH, but the Russkies ain't telling.
This is the ideal terrorist weapon. Not only because they can cause serious damage, esp. if equipped with WMD warhead, but also because the psychological and economic consequences of having to treat every ship, train and truck hundreds of miles outside our borders as a potential missile launcher would de devastating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xupOQSvnas
Slick, I'll give them that. But I think the Russians forget we have CIWS and C-RAM.
There's no requirement to solve all problems in war with one single answer. This is an answer to the questions of launcher survivability and tactical surprise.
Other answers are needed for other questions, such as munition survivability and accuracy. Those answers are likely in the munition itself, and you better believe that its developers weren't dumb or incompetent.
Maybe Russia will be willing to sell their missile to us. Look like they are leaig on defesice arsenal. this is what we are doing too. Maybe next time they will bid to sell their s-400 sam to us (USA) too.
Gee… Why would Russians target American equipment? I thought that with our new leader we were all buddies now with them.
Gee… Why would Russians target American equipment? I thought that with our new leader we were all buddies now with them.
Required metal netting over ALL CONTAINERS, mesh-form or otherwise before transport. Sort of handcuffs for containers. Perhaps overly simplistic but the hardest part of 'the thousand yard defense' is the first foot…
Perfect opportunity for the Airborne Laser (ABL), put it on station and let it swat the missiles from the sky ;)