Very nice additions and its nice to see the Pr.956U represented.
I wonder if the mention of 8 to 16 Oniks was a total representing both launchers, i.e. two Oniks replacing each Moskit?
Thanks!
I don't know much about these Oniks launchers, much to my chagrin.
Both Sokolov and Apalkov mention the SM-403 launcher, to which Apalkov assigns 16 each of either Oniks or Kalibr. Turns out this is confirmed by the
Severnoye PKB in their writeup about the project (third-to-last paragrah), but the wording is suspiciously similar.
The launcher reference isn't really helpful, as it isn't mentioned anywhere except in relation to this project, and sometimes to the Project 1234.7 (Nakat) aka Nanuchka-4, where it looks totally different (a basic frame launcher with individual tubes of the missiles.
If the SM-403 is the Nakat version indeed,
and it takes both Oniks and Kalibr, then it starts looking very similar to
Agat's 3S14PE, which incidentally doesn't scale up to 16 missiles per launcher. Also, launcher notwithstanding, 32 Oniks missiles weigh 99 tons, compared with less than 32 tons for 8 Moskits. Maybe not that bad for a >6000t warship, but it can't help with the navigability.
The things that throws me off most is Apalkov's drawing of the launcher as looking very much like a modification of the Moskit launcher, while the Pr.1234.7 is drawn with very realistic lattice-frame launchers
in the same book, but to his credit, he calls it SM-324 there. Ah well... all this to say that the mock-Moskit from Apalkov would probably have evolved into something similar to what has been seen on the Nakat.
tl;dr 16 Oniks per launcher i.e. 4 times as many as Moskits, but the launcher as drawn has probably never existed.
In comparison, the second and third versions with vertical tubes carry 18 to 24 missiles in all, in 6 to 8 three-cell tubes or 3 8-cell UKSK blocks.
The rise in missiles per ship makes sense given 1) the slightly lighter warhead and halved KE => more missiles for the same effect, and 2) the steadily improving missile defense => bigger salvos to ensure as many missiles get through.