Anti-ship missiles are precision-guided weapons designed to destroy enemy warships, support vessels, and strategic maritime platforms with high accuracy. Using radar, infrared, electro-optical or combined guidance systems, these missiles can lock onto a target and strike with meter-level precision. As naval operations and open-sea threats have evolved, anti-ship missiles have become one of the most decisive and deterrent offensive tools in modern naval forces.

Technically, anti-ship missiles incorporate sea-skimming flight profiles, allowing them to fly extremely close to the ocean surface to reduce radar visibility and delay detection by enemy defense systems. Equipped with advanced seekers and resistant to electronic jamming, these missiles often navigate like cruise missiles and perform terminal maneuvers to evade interception. New generations can reach supersonic or even hypersonic speeds, drastically shortening defensive reaction time. They can be launched from ships, coastal batteries, submarines, or aircraft—providing multi-platform attack capability that shapes naval strategy and increases operational flexibility. For these reasons, anti-ship missiles are recognized as some of the most influential power-projection weapons in modern maritime conflict.