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The Sunburn missile has never seen use in combat, to my knowledge, which probably explains why its fearsome capabilities are not more widely recognized. Other cruise missiles have been used, of course, on several occasions, and with devastating results. During the Falklands War, French-made Exocet missiles, fired from Argentine fighters, sunk the HMS Sheffield and another ship. And, in 1987, prior to the Iran-Iraq war, the USS Stark was nearly cut in half by a pair of Exocets while on patrol in the Persian Gulf. On that occasion US Aegis radar picked up the incoming Iraqi fighter (a French-made Mirage), and tracked its approach to within 50 miles. The radar also "saw" the Iraqi plane turn about and return to its base. But radar never detected the pilot launch his weapons. The sea-skimming Exocets came smoking in under radar and were only sighted by human eyes moments before they ripped into the Stark, crippling the ship and killing 37 US sailors.
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First of all, as an
O.H. Perry-class frigate, the
Stark did not have an Aegis system; just a basic SPS-49 air search radar and four missile directors. As a relativly-low powered L-band radar, it's not terribly effective at detecting missles, unlike the S-band SPY-1 used by the Aegis system.
Second, although the Sunburn is still a good missile, it's reputation as a nigh-unstoppable superweapon is grossly overstated. Unlike subsonic sea-skimmers (like the aforementioned Klub), while fly at under 10 meters, the Sunburn flies at over 50m, meaning it will be detected much further out (especially by a radar as massively powerful as the SPY-1). And although it can pull limited evasive maneuvers, it is still a big missile and it's high speed gives it a huge IR signature. And although Phalanx would not be terribly effective (since even if it killed the missile at maximim range, buring wreckage would still hit the ship), that is hardly the first line of defence, and point-defence SAMs like RAM and ESSM most certainly would be able to out-maneuver a Sunburn.