March 2, 2026:
In 2025 China revived its practice of arming cargo ships with cargo containers containing anti-ship or land-attack missiles. This new version had several containers welded together so they could be equipped with VLS/Vertical Launch System cells for the missiles. Other containers contain radar and electronic countermeasures systems, and even a CIWS/Close In Weapons System similar to the American Phalanx. A dozen or more cargo ships equipped with this system could be part of a surprise attack on Taiwan.
Eight years ago, China became the third nation to reveal it had developed a system to fire missiles from a standard 40 foot\12.3 meter shipping container. The Chinese version is apparently designed to handle the YJ-18C missile. This is the latest version of the YJ-18, which is normally used as an anti-ship missile and is very similar to the Russian Klub. The C version is said to have a longer range and meant mainly for land-based targets.
The Chinese containerized missile system is very similar to the one a Russian firm began marketing in 2010. That one fired a version of the 3M54 Klub cruise missile. This system was called Pandora’s Box and designed so that missiles were carried in and fired from a 40 foot shipping container. The launcher and the missile have to slide out of the container before firing, thus limiting where it can be placed on a ship, particularly your typical container ship. Each container contained a small compartment for the two-man firing crew. You could get two or three of these shipping container Klubs, plus the crewed firing container, on most cargo ships, turning the vessel into a warship. The Klub missile is a key weapon for the Kilo class diesel-electric submarines. Weighing two tons and fired from a 533mm/21 inch torpedo tube, the 3M54 has a 200 kg warhead. The anti-ship version has a range of 300 kilometers and speeds up to 3,000 kilometers an hour during its last minute or so of flight. There is also an air-launched and ship-launched version. A land attack version does away with the high-speed final approach feature and has a 400 kg warhead or a longer range of 500 kilometers. This is what the YJ-18C sounds like. The basic YJ-18 is used on Chinese destroyers, launched from VLS cells. This is what the U.S. Navy has long been using for firing Tomahawk cruise missiles.
In 2012 a new version of Pandora’s Box was announced. This one used a smaller, slower, and presumably cheaper cruise missile. This unidentified weapon is described as weighing 520 kg, having a 145 kg warhead, and being 3.8 meters long. Max range is 130 kilometers. The version cost about $4 million per container while the original version with Klub cost $6 million. There is not a lot of high-tech involved with systems like Pandora’s Box or the Chinese version, but manufacturers believe there is a market for this sort of thing.
Meanwhile in mid-2017, Israel conducted a successful test of a new version of its LORA\Long Range Artillery Rocket system that can be mounted and fired from standard shipping containers. The test involved a truck hauling a shipping container parked on a ship deck. The containerized LORA uses a minimum of two containers; one containing four missiles each in the standard sealed container, and the standard electric system to point the missile skyward so it will be fired without the rocket blast damaging the ship. Another container contains the control center and some maintenance and test equipment. In the original ship-launched version, the launch center electronics were installed in the ship CIC/Combat Information Center like other fire control equipment. A ship could carry four or more containers with launchers, and the container version could also be used on land with the containers mounted on any heavy truck or tractor-trailer designed to carry those containers. The new container system also makes it easier to add more firepower to existing warships or even unarmed naval support vessels.