How Harpoon anti-ship missiles in Ukraine's arsenal can disbalance Russia in Black Sea region

As the war in Ukraine enters in a new phase with Russian troops concentrating their forces in eastern Donbas area, the UK said it will supply heavier weapons and armoured combat vehicles to support Ukraine.

Among them is the Harpoon anti-ship missiles to break Russia's dominance in the Black Sea region. Russian Navy has been launching missiles from its warships on Ukraine.

Ukraine's strategic Black Sea port of Odessa has repeated been hit by missiles in the past few weeks.
 

Joe Biden has promised to help Ukraine get air defense systems with a longer range than the shoulder-borne Stinger missiles already on the ground, but finding the powerful anti-missile batteries Ukraine's military so urgently needs is proving easier said than done.

The US president, who wants to support Ukraine militarily without entering into direct conflict with Russia, is seeking to provide better defenses against the Russian artillery that is pounding its cities. 

The ideal armament to do that would be mobile anti-aircraft batteries of the Patriot type, whose effectiveness has been amply demonstrated in recent years in Iraq and the Persian Gulf. 

Still unclear is whether the Patriot system could provide an effective defense against the latest missiles in the Russian arsenal.

Ukraine's army, moreover, is not at present trained to handle the sophisticated US Patriot system.

On the other hand, they know how to handle the S-300 anti-aircraft system, a first-generation Russian competitor to the US Patriot, whose range is more limited but which would be sufficient to protect Kharkiv or Kyiv, two cities close to the Russian border, where most of the missiles that pound them are fired from.

Ukraine had around 100 S-300 batteries before President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion last month, and the Russian army claims to have destroyed about 40 at the very outset of the war on February 24, Eastwood, a former US soldier, recently wrote.

The Gulf countries have numerous anti-aircraft batteries to protect themselves from Iranian missiles, but they do not seem in a hurry to come to the aid of Ukraine. 

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are among the world's biggest crude exporters and both have strong ties to both the West and to Moscow, have so far avoided taking any stance against Russia.
 

The Harpoon was first deployed in 1977. It is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile system. It has a low-level, sea-skimming cruise trajectory with active radar guidance.

The Harpoon missile is the world's most successful anti-ship missile and is in service with the armed forces of more than 30 countries, according to Boeing.

The US has produced several variant of the missile to suit air, ship and submarine-launched versions while upgrading it constantly.

The missile can be launched from fixed-wing aircraft, ships including submarines. 

The subsonic cruise missile has seen various combat operations since it inception in the 80s. 

In 1988, Harpoon missiles were used by the US to sink the Iranian frigate Sahand during Operation Praying Mantis. It has an semi-active radar guidance system with a 224 kilo payload.

The missile can travel at 0.85 Mach high subsonic speed while hitting targets at a range within 90-240 km range. 

US had earlier sold the anti-ship missiles to Taiwan in a bid to contain China. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Taiwan already has road-mobile supersonic missile, Hsiung Feng III which has a range of nearly 250 miles.

The two missile systems -  Harpoon and Hsiung Feng III - would act as a deterrent against China military muscle, at least in the short run if hostilities break out between the two countries.

The former Trump administration has ramped up support for Taiwan through arms sales and visits by senior US officials, adding to tensions in relations between Beijing and Washington already strained by disagreements over the South China Sea, Hong Kong, human rights and trade.