MF STAR could track a high flying missile at a distance of 250+ Km and a Sea Skimming missile at 25+ Km. This is lower than SPY-3 for high flying target (320+ Km) due to higher power rating of SPY-3 ,but higher than SPY-3 for sea skimming missile because of its higher mounting position than SPY-3 (18+Km).
Agreed, but tracking is another unknown.
Since range of Ship's radar is always limited by Earth's curvature, Ships on Anti sea-skimming AShCM duty are always positioned on the outer periphery of fleet . Hence your stupid scenario is moot. But I will still entertain your hypothetical scenario to prove how a missile with active seeker is superior to a Ship-Radar guided missile in this scenario.
Suppose a Ship is 20 Km away from your Ship, and the sea-skimming AShCM has been detected to be heading your way possibly by AWACS .
In case of Barak-8, you could fire this missile even when your target missile is beyond the maximum reach of Barak-8. In your example target missile is heading towards that helpless ship 20 Km away at Mach3. Barak-8 fired in general direction of that missile would take 58.77 second to reach its maximum range. Lets say you want to keep some spare range and reduce interception range to 30Km (so that Barak has some spare fuel, in case enemy missile maneuver, and remember, the ship you are protecting is 20Km away) , Barak-8 would take 42 second to reach there.At the time you fired Barak-8 in this scenario, target missile was (30 + 28.5) = nearly 60 Km away from your Ship and 40 Km away from helpless ship it was defending.
This means that even though your radar could not track a Sea-Skimming AShCM at more than 30 Km away ( this is due to Earth's curvature and is present in each and every Radar) , you could still fire Barak-8 when your target missile is 60 Km away (provided you have detected it using AWACS) and depend on Barak-8 to home in on your bogie by itself.
In contrast to this, if your Chibot ship is defending a ship that is 20 Km away, that ship is dead.Even if an AWACS has detected a Sea-Skimming AShCM 100 Km away, your Chibot missile which need to be guided by onboard radar could not be fired until it comes within range on that onboard Radar ie 25Km away, which means that your Chibot missile has to cover 25Km in time your Enemy missile covers 5 Km (in case of Barak-8 , Barak-8 has to cover 30 Km in time its target missile covers 40 Km).
I think that helpless Bot ship is sunk even when Chibot missile has double the speed of Barak, while Indian ship survives.
Now take up those pom poms and cheer for your master's Navy.
Take into account that modern AAM and SAM take into account where the target is going to be and fire in that direction not at the direction. This is how they work, if they have to chase after the target, failure would be far higher, which is what older SAMs, and AAM weapons do.
Computers calculate the trajectory of the target and intercept.
Also, naval platforms like Harriers, Migs or Hornets can also shoot down cruise missiles, supersonic or subsonic within 40 KM and has been proven late 70's.
In short you don't need to be faster than your target, just smarter.
The minimum range of Barak 8 allows the missile to do exactly what Barak the predecessor did and engage cruise missiles are short notice and short ranges. Also note worthy is that the PLAN, really can't challenge IN in the Indian ocean. Nore can any one else except the USN.
IN knows this, the IAF MKI fleet was purchased for exactly this issue. The only threat the IN faces from the the sea from the USN. Which is why they have purchased supersonic cruise missiles. You don't need supersonic missiles to deter PLAN but the USN, absolutely. Even the PLA is now waking up to the advantage of high speed cruise missiles especially air launched.
Both the PLAN and IN are arming against the same enemy, but different fleets. While the mission is the same, both are coming to the same conclusion, speed - volume, just like the soviets.
Dude, why does every one forget about computers?
The missile goes to direction of where the target is going to be rather than where it is.
and damn man, you just repeated what i've been saying. The s-300 family is good, but the have limitations due to size hence different missiles required for shorter ranges and faster reaction. Also the Grumble takes up a lot of space on a ship, but on the other hand, if the HQ-9 is anything like the Grumble, it can hit surface targets as well, and expensive MBRL which is what China also has.