Random thoughts on modern (and past, perhaps future) naval combat, from me. Just a thread for thoughts that come to my head that I wouldn't mind sharing, or getting feedback on, or being told I'm an idiot
I've occasionally mulled over anti-ship and anti-air missiles, since I play a number of games that include them prominently (albeit not particularly realistically) such as Wargame: Red Dragon, or Aurora 4X. Is the line between anti-ship and anti-air missiles going to blur into nothingness in the future? Surely aside from carrier-killer missiles warhead size doesn't need to be extraordinarily large to be effective. RADARs, helicopter fuel, VLS magazines, there's no shortage of critical and delicate targets on a modern warship. Moreover, modern missiles can easily target down to the meter fully autonomously with onboard sensors and computers. Do you need more than a 10kg explosive warhead if you can put a missile through the bridge window or down the thermal exhaust port? Use the SM-2, Luke. Faster missiles also give shorter time for the enemy CIWS to react. Stealth missiles are well and good, but a golf ball or bird sized radar signature moving at several hundred kilometers per hour towards you is rather suspicious. Stealth isn't even mutually exclusive with speed (except thermal signature perhaps).
Anyways, the tl;dr of the rant is that I wonder whether "evolved standard missiles" will become the bread and butter of naval missiles in both anti-ship and anti-air roles.