Now a missile in shipping box on sale

LONDON - A powerful cruise missile that can launched from a shipping container has been offered for sale by a Russian company, raising fears of ballistic weapons infiltration.

Called the Club - K container missile system, the weapon can be loaded onto a lorry, ship, or train and moved into position before launching it, The Telegraph reported Monday.

It is designed to be hidden as a standard 40 feet shipping container that cannot be identified until it is activated and experts fear that the missile attack system could change the game in wars.

Costing an estimated 10 million pounds, each container is fitted with four cruise anti-ship or land attack missiles and the system represents an affordable “strategic level weapon”, the media report said.

Iran and Venezuela have reportedly evinced interest in the deadly weapon.

The missile is being marketed at the Defence Services Asia exhibition in Malaysia this week by its manufacturer, Novator.

The Russian firm has released a dramatic marketing film, which shows Club-K containers placed on ships, trucks and trains as a neighbouring country prepares to invade. The enemy is beaten back by the cruise missile counter attack.

“This Club-K is game changing with the ability to wipe out an aircraft carrier 200 miles away. The threat is immense in that no one can tell how far deployed your missiles could be,” The Telegraph quoted Robert Hewson, editor of Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, as saying.

“What alerted me to this was that the Russians were advertising it at specific international defence event and they have marketed it very squarely at anyone under threat of action from the US.”

Reuben Johnson, a Pentagon defence consultant, said “you cannot readily identify what’s being used as a launcher because it’s very carefully disguised”.

“Someone could sail off your shore looking innocuous then the next minute big explosions are going off at your military installations.”