Recently, something quite surprising happened on the battlefield in Ukraine. Video released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense shows that in the Berkansk port on the seashore, a 1171 landing ship of the Russian Navy caught fire and exploded. The Ukrainian army said it used the "Dound-U" tactical ballistic missile to destroy the ship. This is the only case in the battle report of Ukraine claiming to sink the Russian ship after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Another video shows that after the explosion of the Type 1171 landing ship, another Russian Type 775 landing ship in the port was evacuated urgently to prevent the secondary explosion from being affected. Obviously, this is the first actual combat record of the ballistic missile hitting the surface ship , and it is worth studying it carefully.
Previously, on March 19, the Russian air defense forces intercepted a "Dound-U" ballistic missile launched by the Ukrainian army at the port. Therefore, some people believe that this time it is not ruled out that the Ukrainian army used "Dound-U" to attack the port. The Russian air defense failed to intercept, which caused the bomb to hit the warship . There are also speculations that it was a fire in the Russian ship that ignited the ammunition carried, and then exploded, rather than being hit by the missile . To be fair, the Ukrainian army's results in this battle are of great luck, but in any case, as a ballistic missile that specifically attacks fixed targets on the ground, the "Dound-U" strike is undoubtedly successful.
Specifically, the Ukrainian army seized the opportunity that the Russian military landing ship was in a berth and launched a missile strike, which was equivalent to using the berthed warship as a fixed ground target. On the one hand, this shows that "Dound-U" has good strike accuracy, but on the other hand, it seems to have brought some counter-effect to the issue of "ballistic missiles hit surface ships".
As a ballistic missile born in the late stage of Cold War , the technical level of "Dound-U" is no longer considered advanced, but it still breaks through the Russian army's air defense interception. However, from the perspective of the strike effect, it does not seem to have achieved "one-hit kill" on the Russian landing ship. The difficult fire is the real reason for the sinking and scrapping of the warship. This is either because the missile is too fast, causing it to explode if it penetrates the hull, or the warhead is insufficient.
Considering that "Dound-U" lacks high-precision final guidance capability, the warhead is also an ordinary high-explosive warhead, so it is understandable that the lethality is relatively limited. Of course, although the Ukrainian missile attack was very successful this time, the gap is still too big compared to the ballistic missile strike system of the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force , which is specially used to destroy the aircraft carrier battle group , and its technical level is at least about one and a half behind our generation.
At present, China has fully mastered hypersonic gliding attack technology. The new missiles installed can release the wave body warhead without rushing out of the atmosphere, achieving low-ballistic high-speed penetration of about ten times the speed of sound. With the cooperation of its own satellites and high-speed unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, it combines data and information to achieve tracking and attacking maritime moving targets, rather than only attacking fixed targets like "Dound-U". Moreover, the introduction of hypersonic technology also ensures the penetration probability of the domestic anti-ship ballistic missile , and it is difficult for the enemy aircraft carrier combat group to effectively deal with such missiles.
If the emergence of the earliest "Dongfeng-21D" ballistic missiles only solves the problem of anti-ship ballistic missiles and strike systems for us, then the current deployment of missiles such as " Dongfeng-26" and " Dongfeng-17" gives the People's Liberation Army more powerful anti-ship measures. I believe that if it is in actual combat, the results of these missiles will be far beyond the old "Dound-U".
