The sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva in 2022 by Ukrainian R‑360 Neptune missiles highlighted the vulnerability of large warships to modern missile threats.
By Hezy Laing
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has unveiled the C‑GEM Active Offboard Decoy, a next‑generation soft‑kill system designed to lure and divert incoming radar‑guided anti‑ship missiles away from naval vessels.
C‑GEM is part of Rafael’s SEWS‑DV electronic warfare suite and uses an expendable, autonomous decoy that emits a powerful DRFM‑based (Digital Radio Frequency Memory) signature to imitate and amplify the radar profile of the protected ship.
Once launched from standard 115‑mm or 130‑mm deck launchers, the decoy deploys at a distance from the vessel and generates a false target that seduces incoming missiles during their terminal homing phase.
The need for such a system became clear after several high‑profile missile incidents involving both coastal‑launched and ship‑launched anti‑ship weapons.
In 2006, Hezbollah fired a C‑802 (YJ‑82) missile—a sea‑skimming, radar‑guided missile launched from a truck‑mounted coastal battery, not from aircraft—that struck the Israeli corvette INS Hanit, killing four sailors and exposing gaps in soft‑kill defenses.
Since 2016, Houthi forces in Yemen have repeatedly launched C‑801, C‑802, and Noor missiles—all coastal‑launched or ship‑launched variants, not air‑delivered systems—against U.S. Navy destroyers and Saudi vessels in the Red Sea, demonstrating how widely proliferated radar‑guided AShMs have become.
The sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva in 2022 by Ukrainian R‑360 Neptune missiles—ground‑launched, radar‑guided coastal AShMs—further highlighted the vulnerability of large warships to modern missile threats.
C‑GEM enters a competitive market that includes the U.S. Navy’s Nulka Active Missile Decoy, a hovering offboard jammer developed by BAE Systems Australia and Lockheed Martin and deployed on more than 150 ships across the U.S., Australian, and Canadian fleets.
Nulka’s per‑round cost reportedly exceeds $1 million, while defense analysts estimate C‑GEM’s unit cost in the low‑six‑figure USD range, making it significantly more affordable for navies operating corvettes, OPVs, and frigates.
Israel is expected to deploy C‑GEM on Sa’ar‑5 and Sa’ar‑6 class corvettes, and Rafael reports growing interest from European and Asian navies seeking modern soft‑kill defenses.
As anti‑ship missiles—whether coastal‑launched, ship‑launched, or air‑delivered—grow faster, stealthier, and more maneuverable, C‑GEM’s active deception capabilities position it as one of the most promising new entrants in naval survivability technology.
