Anti-ship ballistic missile

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An anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is a military ballistic missile system designed to hit a warship at sea.

Due to the high flight speed of ballistic missiles, an ASBM's kinetic energy alone may be sufficient to cripple or outright destroy a target with a single conventional warhead impact. Unlike a nuclear warhead, however, this would require a direct hit to be effective; therefore unlike a land attack ballistic missile, which typically strikes fixed targets in known positions, an ASBM requires a dedicated sensor chain to detect and identify its target, combined with a precise and high-performance terminal guidance system with advanced sensors and in-flight calibrations in order to successfully hit a moving target.^[1][2]