The US and China are looking into big boxes full of missiles to give their navies new firepower

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https://www.businessinsider.com/us-and-china-developing-containerized-missiles-to-boost-navy-firepower-2023-12

The US and China are looking into big boxes full of missiles to give
their navies new firepower
Michael Peck Dec 24, 2023, 5:37 AM PST

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Navy USS Savannah SM-6 containerized missile
An SM-6 missile is fired from a containerized launcher during a test
aboard USS Savannah in October 2023.
US Navy/Lt. Zachary Anderson
The war in Ukraine has militaries worried about keeping their arsenals
full in a conflict.
Navies are also thinking about how to increase the number of missiles
aboard their ships.
The US and China are looking into containers of missiles to put on
warships and other vessels.
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Bull
Call them prepackaged missiles or missiles-in-a-box, but containerized
missile launchers, which can be fitted to most any commercial or
military vessel, have the potential to revolutionize naval warfare.

The massive expenditure of munitions in Ukraine has underscored for many
Western military leaders that huge arsenals will be needed to wage
modern warfare. US Navy leaders in particular are worried about their
ability to keep their ships' magazines filled in a showdown with China's
rapidly expanding air and maritime forces.

Containerized launchers have appeal as a relatively easy way to arm a
ship with more missiles and have resurrected interest in "Q-ships," the
warships disguised as merchant vessels that prowled the seas during
World War I and II.

At the end of October, the US Navy test-fired a containerized SM-6
missile from USS Savannah, a littoral combat ship, in the Pacific Ocean.
An SM-6 can be employed against aircraft, missiles, or ships, though the
Navy said only that the missile was launched at "a surface target."

Navy USS Savannah SM-6 containerized missile
An SM-6 missile is fired from a containerized launcher during a test
aboard USS Savannah in October 2023. US Navy/Lt. Zachary Anderson
However, the SM-6 was fired from a Mk 70 containerized launching system.
Lockheed Martin has designed naval and ground variants of the launcher,
which being used for the US Army's Typhon system. The system aims to
launch SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles — both of which have been tested from
the launcher — at targets at ranges between 300 miles and 1,725 miles.

The launcher is being developed as part of the Army's effort to improve
its long-range weaponry and to support more distributed operations, a
reflection of the US military-wide emphasis on dispersing to counter the
long-range weapons of potential foes. The October test "demonstrated the
modularity and lethality of Littoral Combat Ships and the ability to
successfully integrate a containerized weapons system to engage a
surface target," the Navy said.

There have been reports that China is developing a variant of its YJ-18
cruise missile that could be fired from shipping containers carried by
commercial vessels. Late last year, the China Aerospace Science and
Industry Corporation, a state-owned firm that produces missiles and
other weapons, unveiled "a container-type sea defense combat system"
that could be mounted on heavy trucks to become mobile coastal-defense
weapons.

China navy destroyer Shaoxing
Chinese guided-missile destroyer Shaoxing with tug boats during an
exercise in 2023. eng.chinamil.com.cn/Wen Zidong
Containerized launchers are a versatile solution to a problem that has
long plagued navies: supply.

A World War II-era battleship might carry a thousand shells for its nine
big guns, but US Navy frigate in the middle of the Cold War might be
armed with four missile launchers and less than 100 missiles that had to
be loaded from magazines, which meant a slow rate of fire and a limited
supply of ammunition. (Many Soviet warships didn't even bother to carry
spare missile reloads.)

Modern vertical-launch systems — consisting of multiple launch tubes —
can rapidly fire a variety of missiles, but they require cranes to lower
more missiles into the tubes.

Containerized missile launchers are a more user-friendly approach. For
example, Danish company SH Defense touts its launcher as a
"plug-and-play" system that is installed in a standard 20-foot cargo
container, the lid of which is raised to reveal a quadruple launcher.

Navy containerized SM-6 missile launchers
US Navy engineers test containerized SM-6 missiles in Denmark in
September 2023. US Navy/MCS2 Andrew Waters
In theory, a ship could expend a container's missiles and then simply
haul up and unpack another container that was stored on or below deck.
This could vastly increase the number of missiles a ship can carry.

It also raises the possibility of a modern version of the Q-ships used
during the World Wars. If missiles can be stored in standard cargo
containers, then a standard cargo ship should be able to fire them. In
that scenario, no one can be certain that a harmless-looking merchant
ship isn't really a missile boat. Indeed, Russia has been advertising
its Club-K containerized anti-ship missile system as a weapon that can
be mounted on cargo vessels.

For the Royal Navy, which is short on warships and missile launchers, an
updated Q-ship could be a cost-effective way to add firepower, according
to Peter Clarke of the Royal United Services Institute, a British think
tank.

"Fully outfitting a medium-sized cargo ship would cost between $420 to
$840 million, and would allow it to carry roughly 168 missiles capable
of being launched," Clarke wrote in September.

Sea Harrier approaches the container ship and aircraft carrier Atlantic
Conveyor
The British container ship Atlantic Conveyor, repurposed as an aircraft
carrier during the Falklands War, in June 1982. Royal Navy/Imperial War
Museums via Getty Images
"A ship of this size would cost roughly $25 million and no modifications
would be required, since the missiles can receive target information"
from other assets, Clarke added. "The total cost of the platform would
therefore be no more than $900 million, and most likely far less."

Nonetheless, containerized missiles aren't a panacea for a lack of
traditional warships. Even with networked sensors that can send
targeting information across the globe, a Q-ship may be limited in its
ability to detect targets for long-range missiles. Cargo ships also have
limited speed and maneuverability, and modern Q-ships would still need a
minimum of defensive gear such as electronic countermeasures or
air-defense weapons.

If a ship packs a lot of missiles but has little capacity to defend
itself, the navies using them may be tempted to launch first, and if
cargo ships can become floating missile batteries, then every merchant
vessel becomes suspect — an ominous prospect at a time when trade
disruptions can ripple around the world.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes,
Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds
a master's in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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