Under normal circumstances, the chances of anti-aircraft missiles intercepting a Tomahawk Missile were quite high, but what they were facing now was clearly anything but normal!
The Tomahawk Missile had already begun an extremely rapid dive when the four anti-aircraft missiles were launched. By the time all four had fully risen into the air, the Tomahawk Missile had descended to the surface, speeding toward the Japanese naval vessel at a height of only a few meters above the sea.
Because of the severe echoes and clutter from the sea surface, the four anti-aircraft missiles immediately lost their target and could not lock on. They soon plunged into the sea behind the Tomahawk Missile and exploded, failing to intercept the missile flying close to the surface.
Seeing the anti-aircraft interception fail, the personnel aboard the Japanese naval vessel were instantly thrown into complete panic.
Their warship had only four anti-aircraft missiles in total, and they had fired all of them at once. Although the Tomahawk Missile was flying close to the surface, it was still several meters above the water, leaving the ship's torpedoes utterly powerless against it.
Although the ship was equipped with mounted machine guns, with the Tomahawk Missile traveling at Mach 0.7, only a Phalanx CIWS with automatic tracking and locking capabilities and an astonishing rate of fire could intercept it. Their few ship-mounted machine guns clearly lacked the ability to intercept missiles, and there was simply no time!
After the anti-aircraft missiles failed to intercept it, the Tomahawk Missile was less than ten kilometers from the warship. At its speed, it would take less than fifty seconds to arrive; they did not even have time to abandon ship and flee.
Under the shocked gazes of the Sea Shepherd members aboard the anti-whaling vessels, the incoming Tomahawk Missile