From: Monte Davis 

"John Beamish"  wrote:

>those otherwise very ordinary destroyers were, in fact,
>launching platforms for Russian-made 3M-82 Moskit anti-ship cruise
>missiles (NATO designation: SS-N-22 Sunburn), a weapon for which the US
>Navy currently has no defense

ohmygawdohmygawdohmygawd!!!!!! ...except that this is not news, but one
instance of a general and multilateral state of affairs -- namely, that
*everybody* with a blue-water navy, as well as several players with only
coastal forces, has or will soon have such missiles (see Hapoon, Penguin,
Excocet, Sea Eagle etc), and *nobody* has much of a defense against them in
quantity other than (1) to keep their launch platforms out of range or (2)
to attack the launch plaftorms first.

That may or may not be possible, and we won't know until they see combat
use. Think of it by analogy to torpedo boats, which for several decades
early in the 20th century were touted as an "equalizer" that
would let small countries keep big countries' fleets at bay... but in the
end made much less difference than subs and aircraft.

Monte Davis
http://montedavis.livejournal.com

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5