What is the ammunition for conventional missiles made of? Why is it so powerful?

Take the Whaling Fork, the main anti-ship missile of the US Navy, and ——MK45, the main naval gun, as an example.

"Whaling plug" is powered by turbojet engine, so it has a long range, reaching 120km. The bomb is 3.84 meters long, 0.344 meters in diameter and 522 kilograms in launch weight. Before the launch of the Whaling Fork missile, the target data is provided by the ship-borne detection system and then input into the missile's computer. After the missile was launched, it quickly dropped to a cruising altitude of about 60 meters and flew at Mach 0.75. When it is at a certain distance from the target, the seeker searches the front area according to the selected method. After capturing the target, the whaling fork missile further lowered its height and flew close to the sea surface. When approaching the enemy ship, the missile suddenly jumped, then dived to the target and exploded inside the deck to improve the destruction effect.

Mk45, 127mm naval gun, initial velocity (the speed of the shell flying out of the muzzle, which is the fastest at this time) is 807m/s, bomb weight: 3 1.75kg, and range: 23km (to the sea).

As can be seen from the above data, although the initial velocity of the shell is much greater than that of the missile, it is the initial velocity. In the subsequent flight, the speed has been decreasing until it hits the target, and the speed is the slowest when it hits the target.

Anti-ship missiles have engines, which can keep a certain speed all the time. Generally, they are pulled up to dive before hitting the target, and the speed is the fastest when hitting the target.

Say the weight first; The firing mass of the whaling harpoon is 522Kg (the whole projectile is the heaviest, because the fuel is gradually consumed after firing), and the light charge is about 120Kg, while the 127mm shell of the MK45 naval gun is only 3 1.75Kg, and the actual charge is less than this.

Moreover, after the anti-ship missile hits the target, its engine and remaining fuel are also "invisible" charges, which can also cause great damage. Anti-ship missile charge is designed to destroy ship armor (semi-armor-piercing blasting warhead), plus engine and surplus fuel, how to get more than 400 kilograms, kinetic energy can be said to be quite large.

Missiles and missiles can be guided. Generally, the computer of anti-ship missile will find the weaker part of the ship by itself. Cannonballs can hit anywhere (guided artillery shells only appeared in recent years, although they are accurate, but their range and destructive power are still not as good as anti-ship missiles)

In summary, LZ should probably understand why anti-ship missiles are better than naval guns, right?

However, anti-ship missiles are expensive and generally deal with high-value targets. Although the effect of naval guns is not as good as that of anti-ship missiles, there is no country's navy that does not install naval guns on its main warships. After all, it plays an irreplaceable role in dealing with close-range and low-value targets or warning each other.