The Ultimate Guide to the Anti-Ship Cruise Missile

The anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) is perhaps the defining feature of modern naval combat, at least when surface ships are being engaged. More than anything else, tactics, doctrine, force structure, and even warship design are built around this one weapon system. It truly is the naval artillery of the 21st century. One simply cannot understand modern naval warfare without first having a firm grasp on the ASCM. Despite the development of anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) and hypersonics, the anti-ship cruise missile is, and will remain, the dominant arm of modern naval forces well into this century. This guide will explore the origins of this weapon, the way it is employed and the revolutionary impact ASCMs have had upon naval operations and tactics, the impact it had upon warship design and the western, soviet, and soviet successor anti-ship cruise missile design and employment philosophies. It is everything you need to know (and maybe a few things you don't) about the anti-ship cruise missile.

0:00 Inception
10:40 The Battle Network: a New Kind of Naval Combat
31:54 The Offence Defence Contest
55:56 The Western Sea Skimmers: Harpoon and Exocet
1:18:27 The Soviet Solution: Speed
1:41:23 The Soviet Successors: Russia, India and China
1:51:45 Stealth: Current Generation Western Systems

Some, but not all, of the material referenced in the preparation of this video:

Roy M. Smith. 2010. "USING KILL-CHAIN ANALYSIS TO DEVELOP SURFACE SHIP CONOPS TO DEFEND AGAINST ANTI-SHIP CRUISE MISSILES", Master's Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey.
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36699...

KENNETH P. WERRELL, 1985. "The Evolution of the Cruise Missile", Library of Congress.
https://media.defense.gov/2017/Apr/07...

JOHN STILLION, BRYAN CLARK. 2015. "WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN: SUCCEEDING IN 21ST CENTURY BATTLE NETWORK COMPETITIONS" Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA).
https://csbaonline.org/uploads/docume...

John C. Schulte. 1994. "An Analysis of the Historical Effectiveness of AntiShip Cruise Missiles in Littoral Warfare". Master's Thesis. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADB192...

Matthew J. Wemyss, Maj. 2016. "The Bear’s Den: Russian Anti-Access/Area-Denial in the Maritime Domain", Master's Thesis, AIR COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE, AIR UNIVERSITY, USAF.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1031...