Ballistic Cruise Missile?

I am not quite sure what it is but Russia has apparently invented them and deployed them on a new sub. How do you defend against a ballistic cruise missile anyways?

Link

There's also no defense against an ICBM launch from a Typhoon class sub either. The only defense is to detect the sub and sink it before it launches its payload.

Probably they're talking about the SS-N-30 "Kalibr". It's a cruise missile though. No idea what a "ballistic cruise missile is". Neither does the author of the article, most probably. But it sounds cool.

Maybe it is because one of the models has a supersonic terminal guidance to target phase, but it is still not ballistic.

Or it's fired ballistically into suborbit and then glides to the target from there.

Mutually exclusive terms. It's like "light strategic bomber."

Ballistic--trajectory looks like a parabola. Cruise missile--trajectory looks like a plane.
You can't do both at the same time.

Our subs have SSBMs which arc up and down. We also have Tomahawks and other cruise missiles that can launch from subs. But they're never the same missile.

Author misused ballistic.



The Jedi Master

Ssnake's idea is also what came to mind for me, ballistic launch/boost phase, followed by cruise to target.

Somewhat like WWII The German and Japanese piggybacked flying bombs on top of bombers and dropped them near Bomber formations and they flew into them,,,The boost was getting ferried to the target..And they cruised in for the kill

MARVs carried by ballistic missiles already fly towards a target and even perform evasive maneuvers to avoid ABM measures.

The Chinese have developed guided anti-ship ballistic missiles, here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-21

But either way, a ballistic missile is a ballistic missile and not a cruise missile and it doesn't matter if it's guided or not.

A cruise missile has a completely different flight path compared to a ballistic missile. Or resuming ballistic missiles and cruise missiles are mutually exclusive - A missile can't be both.
This is like saying that someone has developed a "Turbofan Jet Rocket Engine" - Turbofan jet engine and rocket engine are mutually exclusive as well.

Beside by looking at this Russian submarine class specs - the Yasen-class - this submarine doesn't carry ballistic missiles (afterall it's a SSN or attack submarine)! It only carries Cruise missiles (P-100, SS-N-26 or SS-N-27 depending on the source or even configuration) which are launched from a Vertical launching system (VLS).

Perhaps since the missiles are launched from a Vertical launching system, this gave the article's author the idea that the missiles had somehow a "ballistic" profile?? Nevertheless this clearly seems to be an error from the article's author part.

IIRC the reentry vehicle uses a scramjet engine so its a powered flight rather than a glide.