Building a battleship required immense construction capacity and an expensive armoured hull. An opponent instead needed a missile able to penetrate the armour or reach a vulnerable area. Those weapons could be distributed across inexpensive fast attack craft rather than concentrated in another capital ship. Even if one P-15 Termit could not guarantee a sinking, a massed salvo from many boats could overwhelm the battleship before its guns came into action.
Chapter · 10:39-12:13
Cheap missiles threaten expensive armour
Missile boats shifted the cost exchange by threatening a capital ship with weapons and launch platforms far cheaper than its armour and infrastructure.