The MV Aya was hit by a Russian Kh-22 (AS-4 Kitchen) missile.

Naval News reports,

A Turkish operated merchant vessel, the MV Aya, has been hit by a supersonic anti-ship missile in the Black Sea. The Kh-22 missile was launched from a Russian Tu-22M Backfire bomber. The ship was carrying 26,550 tons of grain for Egypt.

MV Aya seems to be the ship pictured below. If so, it is relatively small, 107.7 meters (353′) in length and 17.2 meters (56.4′) of beam.

M/V Aya, source: vesselfinder.com

What I find interesting here is that while this relatively small ship was hit by a large, hypersonic missile, the Kh-22, NATO designation AS-4 “Kitchen” with a 1,000 kg (2,205-pound warhead) designed to be used against aircraft carriers, the ship apparently continued its voyage.

As Naval News notes,

“Modern merchant ships have proven very resilient to missiles, although the risk to the vessel and crew remains high. Context is everything. This is demonstrated by the Houthi Movement who have struck a number of vessels with ballistic missiles in the Red Sea, resulting in broadly similar damage.”

The resilience of modern merchant ships should raise a red flag for the Coast Guard, in that the service no longer has the facility to meet the implicit mission requirement of being able to forcibly stop merchant ships regardless of size.