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26 July 2022

Russia's 'new' anti-ship missile

Timothy Wright

According to a report from the news agency TASS, the Russian Navy is developing a 'new' type of anti-ship ballistic missile known as Zmeyevik. The weapon probably first entered development during the Cold War and, like many other programmes, may have been shelved due to cuts to Russia’s defence budget in the 1990s until work resumed in recent years. This would match the development chronology of other ‘new’ Russian missile systems, such as the Avangard (RS-SS-19 Mod 4) hypersonic boost-glide vehicle and the RS-28 Sarmat (RS-SS-X-29) intercontinental ballistic missile, both of which were also shelved for a period beginning in the 1990s.

Zmeyevik is designed to ‘destroy large surface targets, primarily aircraft carriers’, according to TASS. Russian sources suggest the system might be deployed with coastal missile units of the Russian Navy. In this capacity, it would complement existing coastal-defence systems with a far shorter range, such as the K-300P Bastion-P (RS-SSC-5 Stooge).

Moscow has sought to bolster its anti-ship long-range attack capability through the development of multiple sea- and air-launched systems such as the ship- and submarine-launched 3M22 Tsirkon and the air-launched Kh-32 (RS-AS-4A mod Kitchen). The development and deployment of a very long-range ground-launched capability would provide Russia with an even greater ability to hold NATO maritime targets at risk across the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea and parts of the North Atlantic Ocean, depending on the basing of the system.

Over long ranges, however, anti-ship missiles require reliable and accurate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to strike their intended targets, a requirement that Russia’s armed forces appear to have struggled with in the invasion of Ukraine. Russia is, however, updating its space-based ocean reconnaissance network through the Pion-NKS satellite programme. Once operational, this will likely provide the Russian Navy with an upgraded means to locate and identify maritime targets.

While Zmeyevik is not ready to enter service, and many details are still unknown, the news of its development will cause some NATO-member countries to consider how they might respond. The United Kingdom, for example, is planning to develop a ballistic missile-defence capability to better protect maritime vessels from such weapons.

The missile’s alleged lengthy development raises questions about Russia’s earlier commitment to the now-defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which restricted the production, flight-testing and possession of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles within a 500–5,500 km range threshold. The United States withdrew from the treaty in 2019 due to Russia’s development of a ground-launched cruise missile, 9M729 (RS-SCC-8 Screwdriver), which violated the agreement. If the latest development phase of Zmeyevik began before 2019, it would appear that Russia was simultaneously developing two types of missiles prohibited by the treaty while it was in force.

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