ADVANCED WEAPONSADVANCED WEAPONS FOR ADVANCED WARPLANESFOR ADVANCED WARPLANES

Development of a new generation of precision guided munitions is nearing completion

Peter STONE

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Late January 2010 saw the maiden flight of the Sukhoi PAK FA Future Tactical

Aircraft. In one of his interviews, Boris Obnosov, Director General of the Tactical

Missiles corporation, the key supplier of weapons for the fifth-generation

fighter, said that the development of air-launched weapons for the aircraft were

on schedule. The corporation is completing the development of 14 types of

advanced missiles and smart bombs spanning virtually the whole spectrum of

air-launched weapons. The emphasis has been placed on air-to-air and air-to-

surface guided missiles.

New air-to-air missiles on’s enhanced powerplant and combined aero-

The latest air-to-air missiles under develop- gas-dynamic controls enable the RVV-MD

ment include short-, medium- and long-range to use higher angles of attack than the R-73E

ones and are being developed by the Vympel can, with the former’s target designation angles

design bureau, a Tactical Missiles subsidiary. ranging ±60 degrees. It also can eliminate

The RVV-MD short-range air-to-air mis- threats manoevring at as much as 12 g.

sile is designed for use by fighters, attack The highly lethal RVV-SD medium-range

aircraft and combat helicopters. The cutting- missile is intended to deal with aerial threats,

edge missile, fitted with an upgraded all-aspect e.g. hostile fighters, attack aircraft, bomb-

two-mode heat-seeking head, features a 30% ers, airlifters, helicopters and cruise missiles.

increase in the range over the R-73E dogfight Compared with the RVV-AE missile, the

missile it is designed to replace. The new weap- RVV-SD features a big increase in maximal

RVV-MD and RVV-SD AAMs

range – up to 110 km. The RVV-SD kills tar-

gets jinking at up to 12 g at any time of day and

night, attacking them from any aspect in the

face of electronic countermeasures (ECM) in

the look-down mode, including the multiple-

target launch-and-leave attack capability.

Air-to-ground missiles

The design of the latest AGMs is heavily

modularised. The approach has been embod-

ied in the advanced Kh-38ME multi-purpose

missile able to mount a number of combined

guidance packages, including the inertial

guidance system and terminal precision-guid-

ance package variants wrapped around laser,

thermal-imaging and radar or satnav homing

heads. The missile can pack a formidable blast/

fragmentation or penetrator warhead, with

a cluster-type warhead being an option. The

dual-pulse solid-fuel rocket motor develops

a velocity exceeding the sonic speed by more

than twice.

Table 1 offers a comparison of the basic

characteristics of the Kh-38ME and the

widely-known previous-generation Kh-25M

AGM (the data pertaining to the Kh-38MLE

and Kh-25ML laser beam-riding missiles).

According to the table, the Kh-38MLE is

virtually four times more effective than the

Kh-25ML in terms of maximum range and

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Kh-38ME

The Kh-59MK2 air-to-ground missile

has been developed to deal with a wide spec-

trum of stationary ground targets. It is effec-

tive against targets with the known grids,

including the targets lacking the radar, IR

and optical signatures. The missile is a fire-

and-forget weapon using the autonomous

recognition of the terrain adjacent to the

target. The Kh-59MK2’s enhanced range

accounts for 285 km and its formidable

penetrator or cluster-type warhead has been

increased up to 320 kg and 283 kg respec-

tively.

The Ovod-ME multi-purpose missile sys-

tem wrapped around the Kh-59M2E guided

missile eliminates surface targets identified

visually by the weapon systems officer on

the multifunctional display. The Kh-59M2E

missile-based Ovod-ME system has the

round-the-clock capability, including the

ability to kill targets in low visibility.

Multirole PGMs also include guided bombs.

The offer to foreign customers includes a whole

series of smart bombs furnished with satellite

navigation and laser beam-riding capabilities.

Antiradiation and antiship missiles

More advanced antiradiation and antiship mis-

siles, Kh-31PD and Kh-31AD respectively, are

being derived from the high-velocity Kh-31P/A

missiles fitted with a combined powerplant of a

ramjet sustainer and a solid-fuel booster motor.

The advanced missiles of the type are far superior

to the similar-purpose missiles of the previous

generation in terms of performance. See Table 2

for the comparison of the characteristics of the

export versions of the Kh-31-family weapons.

The new-generation Kh-31PD/AD missiles

are equipped with more accurate cutting-edge

guidance systems and feature a two-plus times

increase in range and a warhead lethality hike of

at least 15–20% over the previous models.

Table 2. Basic characteris

Launch weight, kg

tics of high-veloKh-31AD

715

city antiship and Kh-31A

610

antiradiation misKh-31PD

715

siles of the Kh-3Kh-31PK

605±10

1 family Kh-31P

600

Warhead weight, kg 110 94 110 88±2,5 87,5±2,5

Maximum range from H=15,000 m,

M=1.5, km 120–160 70 180–250 up to 110 up 110

Missile maximum (average) velocity,

m/s >1,000

1,000

(600–700) >1,000

1,000

(720–750)

1,000

(600–700)

Guidance system inertial + active

radar homing

autopilot + active

radar homing

inertial +

wideband passive

radar homing

interchangeable

passive radar

homers

interchangeable

passive radar

homers

Table 1. Basic characteristics of general-purpose air-to-ground missiles

Kh-38MLE Kh-25ML Missile launch

weight, kg up to 520 299±8

Warhead weight, kg up to 250 86

Range, km

- from H=50 m

- from H=5,000 m 3–40

3–10

8–10

Launch altitude

bracket, m 200–12,000 50–5,000

Guidance system

inertial + semi-

active laser beam-

riding

semi-active laser

beam-riding

The evolution of subsonic sea-skimming anti-

ship missiles has embodied in the Kh-35UE

missile featuring considerable aerodynamics

and powerplant improvements and more capa-

ble guidance and control systems compared

with the previous-generation Kh-35E antiship

missile. Refer to Table 3 for a comparison of the

characteristics of the advanced Kh-35UE anti-

ship missile and its predecessor Kh-35E.

The new missile features a twofold increase

in the maximum range. Its combined guidance

system reliant on the inertial-guidance satnav

active/passive radar homing capabilities allows

the Kh-35UE a higher degree of precision and

countermeasures immunity and a wider spec-

trum of targets it can take out, including those it

can kill in the face of ECM. The target acquisi-

tion range of the advanced missile has more than

doubled, with the Kh-35UE having the same

dimensions the Kh-35E has, which makes them

interchangeable.

Developing and producing the new generation

of PGMs calls for a design and technology level

drastically different to that inherited from the

previous century. The Tactical Missiles corpora-

tion is running a purposeful gradual upgrade of

its technological capabilities to this end. At pres-

ent, the corporation is running 17 programmes

on updating and reconstructing its production

capabilities. This enabled it to launch a series

of development efforts on sophisticated PGMs.

Special attention is being paid to refining the

ground test facilities to enable them to ensure

a high degree of sophistication of development

work, thus slashing the number of flight tests.

The work is currently right on schedule.

Table 3. Basic characteristics of subsonic antiship missiles of the Kh-35 family

Kh-35UE Kh-35E Launch weight, kg

- plane-launched missile

- helicopter-launched missile

550

650

~520

~610

Warhead weight, kg 145 145

Range bracket, km 7–260 5–130

Sea-skimming altitude, m:

- cruising leg

- terminal leg

10–15

4

10–15

~4

Velocity (Mach) 0.8–0.85 ~0.8

Max post-launch horizontal turn

angle, deg. ±130 ±90

Guidance system

inertial +

satnav +

active/passive

radar homing

inertial +

active radar

homing

Homing head’s maximum target

acquisition and lock-on range, km 50 >20

Kh-35UE

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