P-800 Oniks

Russia's Mach-2.5 ramjet cruise missile — and the road-mobile Bastion-P coastal batteries that launch it. Built to sink ships, the Oniks has instead become one of Russia's most feared land-attack weapons over Ukraine, because its sheer speed and low sea-skimming approach make it extraordinarily hard to shoot down. It is also the design parent of India's BrahMos, making it one of the most influential anti-ship missiles of its era.

Overview

The P-800 Oniks (NATO: SS-N-26 Strobile; export name Yakhont; GRAU index 3M55) is a supersonic, ramjet-powered cruise missile designed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya for anti-ship and, increasingly, land-attack roles. It flies at roughly Mach 2.5, can sea-skim on the terminal approach, and uses active/passive radar homing with a reported terminal accuracy on the order of a few meters. It is fired from surface ships, submarines (via the UKSK universal launcher) and, most visibly in the Ukraine war, the truck-mounted Bastion-P coastal-defense system. Although it was conceived to defeat warships, Russia has expended Oniks heavily against Ukrainian land targets — ports, infrastructure and cities — precisely because its speed gives defenders very little time to react, making intercepts rare.

Development

The Oniks grew out of late-Soviet work at NPO Mashinostroyeniya as a ramjet successor in the lineage of earlier anti-ship missiles, with trials through the 1990s and entry into Russian service around 2002, per Missile Threat (CSIS) and Global Military. It was developed to replace heavier, older anti-ship missiles with a more compact, universally launchable weapon. Its most consequential offspring is the BrahMos, co-developed with India from 1998 on the Yakhont design — a missile now central to Indian strike capability and an export success in its own right. The Oniks family includes the ship-launched P-800, the submarine-launched Yashma, the export Yakhont, and the coastal Bastion-P (mobile) and Bastion-S (silo) launchers.

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