The Sunburn - Iran's Awesome Nuclear Anti-Ship Missile

[Moooooo]

"Anti-ship cruise missiles are not new, as I've mentioned. Nor have they yet determined the outcome in a conflict. But this is probably only because these horrible weapons have never been deployed in sufficient numbers. At the time of the Falklands war the Argentine air force possessed only five Exocets, yet managed to sink two ships. With enough of them, the Argentineans might have sunk the entire British fleet, and won the war. Although we've never seen a massed attack of cruise missiles, this is exactly what the US Navy could face in the next war in the Gulf.

Try and imagine it if you can: barrage after barrage of Exocet-class missiles, which the Iranians are known to possess in the hundreds, as well as the unstoppable Sunburn and Yakhonts missiles. The questions that our purblind government leaders should be asking themselves, today, if they value what historians will one day write about them, are two: how many of the Russian anti-ship missiles has Putin already supplied to Iran? And: How many more are currently in the pipeline?"

full article:  http://www.indiemediamagazine.com/article.php?story=20050118055547492

[AuH2O]

The threat is somewhat overrated-- as of now, Iran's missiles are almost assuredly conventional, and will remain that way. Using a nuclear weapon against the US is highly unadvisable, at least while a Republican is President.

Sunburns are essentially obsolete anyway. Unlike the small, short-range Exocet (which is mediocre also), the Sunburn is huge, thus showing up on radar (particularly if you have aircraft on patrol). Unlike the superior Shipwreck (the 'S' words are a carry-over from NATO code names for Soviet surface-to-surface missiles), the Sunburn lacks the speed to make Standard Missile (SM-1/SM-2/SM-ER) interception particularly difficult.

Iran also lacks the command and control to fire hundreds simultaneously, and can only launch from land. These weapons were really meant to fired by Soviet submarines, which would come within relatively close range of the US fleet before firing a 30-missile salvo. Even if they hit, it takes several to sink a Destroyer and many, many to sink a Carrier.

[Jake]

HAHAHAHAHA

The Sunburn a 20 year old missle that is massive and easily detectable.  That is great.  It poses a threat to any navy that doesn't use our AEGIS C&C system, but other than that, it doesn't.  It poses as much threat to a CVBG as suicide patrol boat 100 miles off shore, NONE.

[M]

Also a major danger is the fact that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is believed to posess a magic lamp. He could order the genie within to unleash havoc on the Great Satan and the Zionist Entity.

[??????????]

Also a major danger is the fact that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is believed to posess a magic lamp. He could order the genie within to unleash havoc on the Great Satan and the Zionist Entity.

M made a funny.

[J. J.]

There is a problem with this, few ships.  Each missle weighs about 5 tons, so you're not going to get ships launching "barrage after barrage."   They have a lot of patrol boats, but I wouldn't want to be one one facing American air power.  Most of their frigates are both obsolete and unsailable.

If used, most would probably be land based.