What do you think it would actually be like to be on board a modern warship while it’s hit by anti-ship missiles?
The U.S. Navy has answered this question by recently releasing footage taken aboard the decommissioned USS Klakring while it was bombarded by missiles, bombs, and torpedoes deployed from multiple warships, fighters, and rotorcraft during exercise Atlantic Thunder. And the footage serves as a good reminder that warships are way harder to sink than people realize.
Exercise Atlantic Thunder was held in the North Atlantic last month and saw the U.S. Navy and British Royal Navy roll out some of their best anti-ship hardware to take on the retired Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, the Klakring.
Frigates like the Klakring aren’t that big: at 453 feet long, 45 feet wide, and displacing around 4,200 tons, the Klakring is about 56 feet shorter and about 5,700 tons lighter than America’s most modern Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
Unlike the bulky battleships of World War II, modern warships, even dated ones like the Klakring – which was launched in 1982 – don’t usually boast much in the way of armor.
Instead, the Navy has long prioritized interior compartmentalization in its ship designs, effectively sealing off portions of the ship from one another and keeping the vessel buoyant even after you poke it full of holes. Combine that with the Navy’s extensive focus on damage-control training that can be very effective.
Even without any Sailors managing the damage, the former USS Klaking put on one hell of a show, first, eating the 140-pound warhead of an SM-6 interceptor launched by the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, USS Paul Ignatius.
The SM-6 is one of the most broadly capable weapons in history. Its primary role is that of a surface-to-air interceptor launched by Navy ships – in fact, it’s currently the only interceptor in the world that’s already in competition to bring down some kinds of hypersonic missiles.
The SM-6 is so capable that the Navy started strapping the missile to Super Hornets, and it became the AIM-174B Gunslinger — one of the longest-ranged air-to-air missiles in the world. It has a range of more than 290 miles.
After that, the British joined in from their Type 23 Duke-class frigate, the HMS Portland, hitting the Klakring with the relatively new Naval Strike Missile, which carries a massive 260-pound, titanium-cased, blast-fragmentation warhead that has a range of roughly 190 miles.
From there, American and British forces continued to close in, with an AW159 Wildcat helicopter launching the Anglo-French lightweight anti-ship Sea Venom missile at a live target for the first time ever. These little missiles carry a 66-pound warhead, which is more than three times the explosive payload of a Hellfire missile but is relatively small for anti-ship duties.
The Sea Venom makes up for its small size with advanced targeting capabilities that identify vulnerable points on the ship. The missile then first penetrates the ship’s hull and then detonates its warhead on a time-delay fuse. It has a range of 12 miles.
After that, U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles used the Klakring for target practice hitting it guided bombs. (The military did not disclose their type.)
The finishing blow came from America’s newest Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, the USS Massachusetts, which joined the fleet about six months ago.
The Massachusetts hit the Klakring with a Mk 48 Advanced Capability heavyweight acoustic homing torpedo. The Mk 48 is arguably the most effective ship-hunting weapon in the American arsenal. It packed a 647-pound high-explosive warhead that’s designed to detonate just below the water line on the target ship’s hull.
And, needless to say, that was all she wrote for the former USS Klakring.
Feature Image: The USS Klakring getting destroyed during exercise Atlantic Thunder. (U.S. Navy video screenshot)
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