On Sun, 03 Feb 2008 08:53:26 -0700, Fred J. McCall
wrote:

Peter Skelton wrote:

:On Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:06:22 -0700, Fred J. McCall
wrote:
:
:"dott.Piergiorgio" wrote:
:
::Fred J. McCall ha scritto:
::
:: Why? What does it get you? The missile is already 20x faster than
:: what you're shooting it at.
::
:: Capability isn't free. If you want a supersonic anti-ship missile, it
:: has to be bigger (which means you can carry fewer of them), fly higher
:: (to escape reflections of its own shockwave from the surface), etc.
::
::
::As I understand, very high speed in ASuW missiles is conceived as
::counter-measure against CIWS systems, on the basis of reducing the
::available reaction time.
::
:
:I know it's viewed that way, but does it really buy you anything? You
:pick it up farther away (because it has to fly higher and is larger)
:and you have many fewer missiles to use to try to overload a defensive
:sector (again, because the missiles must be much larger).
:
:And, of course, a larger, hotter missile is also easier to hit once
:you detect it...
:
:Aren't the small, modified AA missles supersonic, small and about
:as long-ranged as harpoon? They've a much smaller punch -
:nothing's free, as you say, but they'd be likely to hit against
:current defenses.
:

I'm not sure what missiles you're talking about.

The standard family for certain, I'm not sure how much other kit
has been upgraded.


Peter Skelton