P-700 Granit

P-700 Granit (NATO reporting name: SS-N-19 'Shipwreck')
Type	Long-range anti-ship cruise missile
Place of origin	Soviet Union/Russia
Service history
In service	Since 1983
Used by	Soviet Union, Russia
Production history
Designer	OKB-52/NPO Mashinostroyeniya Chelomey
Designed	1970s
Produced	1985–1992
Specifications
Weight	7,000 kg (15,400 lb)
Length	10 m (33 ft)
Diameter	0.85 m (33 in)
Warhead	High explosive or nuclear
Warhead weight	750 kg (1,653 lb) HE (unknown composition, probably RDX or similar) or 500 kt fission-fusion thermonuclear weapon
Blast yield	500 kt
Engine	ramjet
Operational range	625 km (388 mi)[1]
Speed	Mach 1.6 (low altitude) - 2.5+ (high altitude)
Guidance system	Inertial guidance, active radar homing with home-on-jam, and Legenda satellite targeting system (believed to be nonfunctional after the fall of the USSR)
Launch platform	Oscar class submarines Kirov & Admiral Kuznetsov class ships

The P-700 Granit (Russian: П-700 "Гранит"; English: granite) is a Soviet and Russian naval anti-ship cruise missile. Its GRAU designation is 3M45, its NATO reporting name SS-N-19 Shipwreck. It comes in surface-to-surface and submarine-launched variants, it can also be used against ground targets.^[2]

Design and building

The P-700 was designed in the 1970s to replace the P-70 Ametist and P-120 Malakhit, both effective missiles but with too short a range in the face of improving weapons of U.S. Navy carrier battle groups. The missile was partially derived from the P-500 Bazalt.

Built by Chelomei/NPO Mashinostroenia, the bulging 10m missile has swept-back wings and tail, weighs around 7,000 kilograms and can be fitted with either a 750 kg HE warhead, a FAE warhead, or a 500 kt nuclear warhead. A stubby cylindrical solid-fuel rocket is fitted to the rear for launch; this booster stage is released when the missile enters sustained flight. For many years it was believed that this missile used a turbojet engine during the sustained flight; after the Russian and the Western media gained access to its performance characteristics, it was understood that its propulsion system was a ramjet.^[3][4] The P-700 has a distinctive annular air intake in the nose. Maximum speed is believed to be between Mach 1.6 and more than Mach 2.5.^[5] Range is estimated at 500 to 550–625 km.^[6] The guidance system is mixed-mode, with inertial guidance, terminal active radar homing guidance and also anti-radar homing. Mid-course correction is probable.

The missile, when fired in a swarm (group of 4–8) has a unique guidance mode. One of the weapons climbs to a higher altitude and designates targets while the others attack. The missile responsible for target designation climbs in short pop-ups, so as to be harder to intercept. The missiles are linked by data connections, forming a network. If the designating missile is destroyed the next missile will rise to assume its purpose. Missiles are able to differentiate targets, detect groups and prioritize targets automatically using information gathered during flight and types of ships and battle formations pre-programmed in an onboard computer. They will attack targets in order of priority, highest to lowest: after destroying the first target, any remaining missiles will attack the next prioritized target.^[7][8] Such description received some doubts.^[9] The missile has a means of countering the attacking anti-missiles. Also, onboard computer has data to counter the enemy's electronic warfare and tactics of evasion from the fire of air defense.^[10]

The P-700 was derived from the P-500 Bazalt missile with a turbojet.^[11] The P-700 was in turn developed into the P-800 Oniks, which uses ramjet propulsion, and the BrahMos missile, a joint Indian/Russian modernization of the P-800.

Deployment

SS-N-19 launchers on the Kirov-class battlecruiser Frunze.

Initial deployment was aboard the cruiser Kirov (now the Admiral Ushakov) in 1980 and the missile entered service on 19 July 1983.^[10]

It is currently in service with the Russian Northern Fleet on the Kirov-class battlecruisers Admiral Nakhimov and Pyotr Velikyi, the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov, and with the Russian Northern and Pacific fleets as part of the armoury for the Oscar-class cruise missile submarines (the Kursk carried 24 missiles).

The size of the missile limits the platforms on which it can operate and be launched from.^[12]

P-1000 deployment^[13][14][15]

The missile was partially derived from the P-500 and P-700. Maximum speed is claimed to be between Mach 1.5 - Mach 2.5 depending on altitude. Range is claimed to be at 700 to 1000 km (800^[16]). Warhead: 500 kg. Years of production 1985-1992.^[17] The body of the rocket resembles that of the P-500, but used the ability of the P-700 to overcome defensive countermeasures. Long range rocket can achieve the goal only at low altitudes (up to 25 meters or lower) approximation (in which case the maximum range is less than 500 km).

Former operators

•  Soviet Union
  •  Soviet Navy

Current operators

•  Russian Federation
  •  Russian Navy

See also

• List of missiles
• List of NATO reporting names for surface-to-surface missiles

References

• Jane's Underwater Weapon Systems 2006–2007

External links

• www.dtig.org Russian/Soviet Sea-based Anti-Ship Missiles (pdf)