How ironic that more than 40 years ago the United States fielded the AGM-28B Hound Dog, an air-launched Mach 2 standoff cruise missile with 710-mile range, inertial/stellar navigation, mixed hi-lo dog-leg attack profile, and a one-megaton thermonuclear warhead.

Today? France's inertially guided ramjet-powered Mach 2-3 ASMP standoff cruise missile entered service in 1986 with a 300-kiloton nuclear warhead. Range: about 200 miles, similar to Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM.

But for pinpoint strikes in non-nuclear conflicts, current U.S. and EU conventional cruise missiles -- all subsonic -- would probably not survive advanced land- or ship-based defensive systems mentioned above.

What about other countries' comparable cruise missile capabilities? You judge:

China's ramjet-powered C-301 anti-ship cruise missile: Mach 2; 80-110-mile range -- depending on variant -- 1,130-pound warhead; inertial navigation with active radar terminal guidance; operational since about 1995.

China's Russian-built Sovremenny-class destroyers carry sea-skimming Mach 2.5 carrier-busting SS-N-22 Sunburn anti-ship ramjet cruise missiles. Range: 100 miles with 660-pound conventional or 200-kiloton nuclear warheads.

Mach 2.5-2.8 BrahMos ramjet anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles -- a Russia-India joint venture -- now deployed with the Indian navy are about to enter service with India's army. They can be air-, ship-, sub-, or land-launched; 660-pound warhead; range: 80-200 miles, depending on altitude; preset inertial navigation with alternating inertial/active radar terminal guidance. Export discussions have reportedly occurred with Malaysia, Chile, South Africa, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Russia? SS-N-12 Sandbox, conventional or nuclear, 300-plus mile range, Mach 2.5; SS-N-19 Shipwreck, conventional or nuclear, 300-plus mile range, Mach 2.5, deployed for decades on Russian carriers, cruisers and Oscar-class nuclear submarines.

Operational since 1984 and offered for sale to countries in addition to China, Russia's SS-N-22 Sunburn equips Sovremenny destroyers and various patrol boats. Guidance: initially inertial, with mid-course updates via aircraft or satellite; during terminal phase it employs a multi-channel seeker and 15G evasive 'S' maneuvers. Combat Fleets of the World describes it as a "very sophisticated weapon against which other navies have yet to develop an effective countermeasure," including the United States.

Indeed, in its entire cruise-missile inventory, the United States possesses no equivalents. Forget about replacing JASSMs with other subsonic missiles. Unless we develop and deploy our own stealthy, jam-proof, inertial/GPS-guided, terrain- and wave-hugging supersonic cruise missiles, technologically more advanced adversaries will control the battle space.

(Theodore Gaillard writes frequently on defense issues. His articles and book reviews have appeared in Jane's Defense Weekly, Defense News, the Washington Times and other newspapers and journals around the country. He is a consultant to the Center for Defense Information's Straus Military Reform Project.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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