According to foreign media reports, in the recently held "shield of courage 2022" exercise, the U.S. Navy used standard-6 missiles to sink a Perry class frigate target ship, once again verifying the ability of this type of air defense missile to attack surface ships. Anti ship air defense missile The standard-6 air defense missile is the latest member of the American Standard Series air defense missile family. This series of air defense missiles was initially used in air defense and terminal anti missile operations. In recent years, with the diversification of threats, they have been gradually given the task of anti-ship. In fact, it is not uncommon for air defense missiles to take part-time anti-ship missions. In 1988, a maritime conflict broke out between the United States and Iran in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. military used standard-1 missiles to sink Iranian missile boats. The standard-6 missile adopts many mature technologies in its design, including the missile body and solid rocket motor of the standard-2block4, and the active radar seeker of the aim-120 advanced medium range air-to-air missile. This practice not only shortens the research and development cycle, but also saves research and development costs, and improves the reliability of missiles. The standard-6 missile is 6.5 meters long, 533 mm in diameter, 1.08 meters in wingspan, 1500 kg in launch weight, 370 kilometers in maximum combat distance, and 3.5 mach in flight speed. The guidance system is inertial guidance + mid course command correction + terminal active radar / semi-active radar homing. At the same time, the missile adopts an embedded self-test system, which can save maintenance costs. The biggest feature of the standard-6 missile is that it can intercept warplanes and anti-ship missiles (including land attack cruise missiles) over the horizon with the support of the system. The missile can search the target independently and implement long-range interception according to the target tracking data of the enemy sent back by the air nodes. In a naval exercise held in April 2021, the destroyer "John Finn" of the US Navy, with the active sensor off, positioned the target ship through the data returned by the passive sensor on the unmanned ship, and then launched the standard-6 air defense missile to accurately hit the target. Standard-6 adopts high throw trajectory. When the missile is diving, the speed will be faster and faster under the action of gravity, which improves the terminal penetration ability and the defense difficulty of the opponent. Small warhead, insufficient power The biggest problem with the "part-time" anti-ship of the standard-6 missile is its small warhead. The missile warhead weighs 115 kg, and its strike power is obviously insufficient compared with the anti-ship missile that is prone to hundreds of kilograms. Its advantage lies in its fast speed. Two or three of them can make a 5000 ton warship lose combat effectiveness. The anti-ship capability of the standard-6 missile exceeds that of the "harpoon" anti-ship missile in active service of the US Navy. Although the weight of the warhead of the harpoon anti-ship missile exceeds that of the standard -6 missile, it flies slowly and has a short range. The addition of the standard-6 missile will bring more choices for the US Navy's anti-ship operations, and become the US Navy's anti-ship weapon with the longest range and the fastest firing speed, expanding the strike range of US ships. The standard-6 missile is expensive. According to US media reports, the price of a single missile is as high as $5million, more than three times that of the harpoon anti-ship missile. In addition, the production speed of this type of missile is slow, and the annual output does not exceed 130. The US military has asked Raytheon to increase its annual production to 180 by 2024. (outlook new era)