Modern Q-ship possibilities
 

https://www.navyrecognition.com/imag...ps_925_001.jpg
“Many targeting systems rely on inverse synthetic-aperture radar, which produces a low-resolution image of its target for identification, revealing only a simplified shape. In heavily-trafficked areas, a missile merchant without sensor masts would be hard to discern from other merchant ships at range.”

Cargo Ships As Missile Carriers Is One Of The Navy’s Options To Offset Cruiser Retirements
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...nt-of-cruisers

New Navy proposal suggests converting cargo ships into heavily-armed ‘missile merchant’ warships
https://sofrep.com/news/new-navy-pro...hant-warships/

Converting Merchant Ships to Missile Ships for the Win
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proce...sile-ships-win

https://www.wearethemighty.com/app/u....jpg?width=757

A Russian company is selling shipping containers packed with cruise missiles
https://www.wearethemighty.com/artic...ng-containers/

https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/up...launch-jpg.jpg

China Building Long-Range Cruise Missile Launched From Ship Container
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-building-long-range-cruise-missile-launched-from-ship-contain

lol.
i believe there is an international treaty that bans merchies from weapons of this type.

The Right of Self Defense Under International Law

Under international law, merchant vessels and their crews have the right to carry arms for self defense if that is required for the vessel to exercise its freedom of navigation. Self-defense measures include providing weapons and training to the crew and/or hiring armed guards to allow the vessel to navigate. The self-defense measures and their employment should be proportionate to the threat.

not sure where surface to surface missiles fall in the category of self-defense.

this is the age-old paradigm, popularized recently by Marvel in its movie script(s): just because you CAN do something, does not mean that you SHOULD do it.

China Has Militarized Seafarers Says US Navy Report

Over the many years of reporting maritime news, the idea that China could militarize its commercial maritime fleet has been dismissed by most of the shipping community, but a new report published by the US Naval War College shows that this is not only a possibility but has already been accomplished.

https://gcaptain.com/warning-china-h...its-seafarers/

China’s Container Missile Deployments Could Violate the Law of Naval Warfare

Raul (Pete) Pedrozo
Abstract

China is reportedly developing long-range cruise missiles that can be fired from standard shipping containers loaded on merchant vessels. China is also converting heavy-lift civilian ships and roll-on roll-off (RORO) ferries to serve as de facto amphibious assault ships to support People’s Liberation Army (PLA) amphibious operations. While none of these activities are illegal per se, they do raise potential concerns under the law of naval warfare. Only warships can engage in offensive belligerent rights during an international armed conflict. Using merchant vessels to engage in belligerent rights would violate international law unless China first converts the vessels into warships in accordance with the rules set out in the 1907 Hague Convention VII. Using converted commercial ships to directly support military operations increases the risk that all Chinese-flagged container ships and RORO ferries will be targeted as military objectives given that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between a converted and non-converted vessel.

https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/ils/vol97/iss1/45/

yep.

the only thing that matters, is what a man can do and what a man can't do. Captain Jack Sparrow.

Iran Fires Ballistic Missile From A Shipping Container At Sea

Fired from a sea base-like vessel, Iran’s launching of ballistic missiles via shipping containers could have wide-ranging implications.

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has fired two ballistic missiles from launchers disguised as standard shipping containers that were hosted aboard one of its sea base-like vessels. This particular combination, which has not been seen to date, greatly expands the reach with which those weapons could be used to strike potential targets by surprise, especially given that shipping containers can be embarked on any vessel that has the space to accommodate them.

https://www.twz.com/uploads/2024/02/...=70&width=1920

https://www.twz.com/news-features/ir...ntainer-at-sea