SMS-700 Zawba'a
| SMS-700 Zawba'a | |
|---|---|
| File:Sms-700-1.jpg An SMS-700 being launched. | |
| Type | Anti-ship missile surface-to-surface missile |
| Place of origin |  Riysa |
| Service history | |
| In service | 2003-present |
| Used by | Riysa |
| Production history | |
| Designer | ISBR Design Bureau |
| Designed | 1990s |
| Manufacturer | Riysian High Command |
| Unit cost | £L 2,850,000 |
| Produced | 2003-present |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 6200 kg |
| Length | 12.0 m |
| Diameter | 0.85 m |
| Warhead | 1,000 kg high explosive or thermobaric, or 350-500 kt nuclear |
| Engine | Ramjet with solid-fuel rocket booster stage |
| Wingspan | 2.60 m |
Operational range | 700 km |
| Speed | Mach 2.8 |
Guidance system | GPS-augmented inertial, terminal active/passive radar seeker with anti-radiation/home-on-jam capability |
The SMS-700 Zawba'a (Arabic: زوبعة; English: Whirlwind) is a heavy Riysian supersonic cruise missile, developed in the 1990s. Originally an anti-ship cruise missile designed to attack high-value and/or well protected surface targets such as carriers and AEGIS/PAAMS vessels, land-attack variants were also developed. The missile can be air-launched, ship-launched, and in one case submarine-launched as well as being the base for the NDS-700 coastal defense system.
History
Description
Airframe and Engine
Compared to the older missiles it was designed to replace, the SMS-700 makes use of titanium components to lighten the airframe and increase the range, making it lighter than equivalent missiles. The designers also took reduction of the radar cross section of the missile into consideration, shaping it to give it a frontal RCS of 0.3 square meters, or roughly equivalent to the Riysian TaH-29 Daqanoush reduced-signature fighter.
The SMS-700 is primarily powered by a ramjet motor, with a solid-fuel booster stage. It is capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 2.8, and has a maximum range of 700 kilometers.
Guidance, Seeker, and Countermeasures
The Zawba'a missiles use different methods of guidance and different seeker warheads between variants. All variants have GPS-augmented inertial guidance, allowing for high accuracy. The base anti-ship missile is fitted with a dual active/passive radar seeker, with home-on-jam capability. The dual system confers much higher accuracy and reliability than either of the systems alone, homing in on both the radar signature and electromagnetic emissions of a target, and can accurately function in a heavy ECM environment. Supplementing this is a wide-angle search radar, allowing Zawba'a missiles to independently locate and retarget in the terminal attack stage. Land attack versions do not have the radar seeker, but rather augment the GPS/inetial system with TERCOM and DSMAC updates, giving it a CEP of 10 meters or even less.
It is a sea-skimming (terrain hugging for land-attack versions) missile, flying only 3-5 meters above the sea level during a typical attack mission.
One of its more unusual features is the presence of its own ECM gear, along the lines of some of the heavier Soviet missiles such as the P-700. It is a two-part system consisting of an offensive jammer, for attacking enemy radar systems, and a defensive jammer for countering radar-guided missiles. While designed primarily for jamming fire control radar, the offensive jammers reportedly had enough power to counter AN/SPY-1 radars on board Guadalupadorian vessels during the Battle of the Sea of Bengal.
Warhead
The missile can be conventionally armed with a 1000 kg high explosive or thermobaric warhead, or be fitted with a nuclear warhead with a yield between 350 and 500 kilotons.
Variants
- SMS-700: Base anti-ship model.
- SJA-700: Air-launched land attack variant.
- SAA-700: Ship and submarine-based land attack variant.
- NDS-700: Coastal defense system with SMS-700 missiles.
- Type 700 Senpu: Locally-produced Nihonese version with a variant engine.
Service History
Riysa
All NDS-700 equipped coastal defense batteries were ready for service by 2006, and Zawba'a missiles were installed on all Azmah-class and Zawba'a-class cruisers by 2009. The Za'im-class submarine's multipurpose module can apparently be fitted to store and fire up to 8 of these missiles in angled tubes, although that capability maybe be less about improving the anti-ship firepower of the class and more about providing a flexible component of the Riysian strategic nuclear arsenal.
During the Battle of Ankkeyja Island in June 2014, an SMS-700 fired from the Dimashq-class cruiser Ramallah successfully penetrated the defenses of the Yellowsian Sovremenny-class destroyer YRS Risastórfiskur and destroyed it, making it the first operational kill ever scored by the missile class.
The SMS-700 garnered international attention following the Battle of the Sea of Bengal, after the 9th Surface Action Group of the Riysian 3rd Fleet used sixteen of these missiles fired at a distance 650 kilometers to sink the 7th Carrier Group of Guadalupador. The missile's ECM gear was able to effectively deceive the fire control radars and jam the missile datalinks of the vessels, which when combined with the other countermeasures, prevented the defenders from effectively resisting the swarms. Around 90% of the missiles fired impacted their targets, with the remainder having been shot down or decoyed away. Following the sinking, export sales to allied nations skyrocketed.