Cruise missiles CLUB, namely, anti-ship 3M-54E/TE and land attack 3M-14E/TE, appeared in the market at the beginning of the century, so they cannot be called new. Since then, the worldwide development of cruise missiles has significantly moved forward. On the one hand, new generations of traditional Harpoon, Tomahawk, Exocet came out, on the other, new actors appeared. Among the new countries who announced the development of their own cruise missiles are, e.g., Japan, Brazil, Ukraine.
Nevertheless, even on the background of the latest products, the CLUB missiles remain quite competitive. For example, China, far from being the least powerful military, equips its new submarines with the YJ-18 anti-ship cruise missile without any special concealment that it is a clone of the Russian 3M-54E.
The reputation of CLUB missiles got powerful support in 2015-2016 when Russian submarines and surface ships delivered a series of cruise missile strikes at targets in Syria. Although such missiles are primarily destined to be a strike weapon of the Navy, they have recently been proposed for some other carriers. In particular, GDA-2017, the Gulf Defence and Aerospace (GDA) Exhibition, October 2017, Kuwait, was the first public show of the CLUB-T system with missiles placed on an automotive chassis.
The purpose and features of the CLUB-T missiles are similar to those of their naval analogues, only this time the missiles are placed into transport-and-launch containers, 6 pieces per each vehicle. All the equipment necessary for the missile preparation and launch, namely, for routing, generation and input of a flight mission, control of the launch cycle, is located in the driver’s cabin. The CLUB-T system, in addition to the well-known efficiency of its missiles, is noted for mobility, capability for autonomous operation, possibility to make a launch and change position in shortest time.
Some countries may not need powerful Navy even having enough financial resources for it. It is true, e.g., for the Middle East states not pretending to be among the great naval powers. For such states, the CLUB-T system will be an efficient solution for protection of their sea and land boundaries. The availability of such a weapon would make any potential aggressor think twice.
