[gggggg5]

>It's claimed to have an operational range of 3000km.

Which may be true in a land attack role, but is obviously not the case in an anti-ship role (if that capability really exists at all!).

Realistically, you'll be very happy if you hit a target 300km away with current anti-ship missiles.

[trashtester]

Well, according to Wikipedia, it's nicknamed "Carrier Killer". Also, if it's specified speed is correct, it would travel at several km per second, and reach the carrier in 2-3 minutes if fired from 1000km away.

If it has any kind of ability to home in on the ship based on radar, sattelite or similar, it shouldn't matter much if it's fired from 200km or 2000km. And even less if it carries a nuke. Even at 40kn, a ship doesn't go THAT far in 3 minutes.

Of course, if it's not performing per specification, it wouldn't be the first time for a Russian weapon system. So it makes sense to take the claims with a grain of salt.

The main point, though, is that in some places, it's hard to protect important assets from all angles against enemies that are a lot faster. This may not be all that important in Eastern Europe. It might be more important in the Arctic, Middle Eastern or Pacific theatres, though.

At the very least, speed allows each plane to patrol a larger area in relatively remote places.