The Missile That Scares NATO

As the frigid fingers of the Cold War gripped the world, the Soviet Union raced to grow its arsenal of destruction while the United States and Europe rushed to assemble their own armory to deter the likelihood of an enemy attack. Soon, almost every warhead and launching system could fire nuclear weapons and conventional ammunition, drawing the world closer to a nuclear war. During this time, the Soviets constructed a particularly dreadful nuclear-capable cruise missile that would be designated by NATO as the Sunburn. Concocted as an anti-ship missile, the supersonic ramjet-powered projectile was a fearsome seaborne weapon capable of obliterating entire enemy fleets. By combining a sea-skimming flight pattern with Mach 3 speeds, the Soviet warhead was virtually immune to interception, something that seriously alarmed the powers of NATO. But as the world-threatening technology was deployed for the first time, it would be suddenly challenged not only by the NATO allies but from within the So