Kh-55


The Kh-55 is a Soviet/Russian subsonic air-launched cruise missile, designed by MKB Raduga. It has a range of up to and can carry nuclear warheads. Kh-55 is launched exclusively from bomber aircraft and has spawned a number of conventionally armed variants mainly for tactical use, such as the Kh-65SE and Kh-SD, but only the Kh-101 and Kh-555 appear to have made it into service. Contrary to popular belief, the Kh-55 was not the basis of the submarine- and ground-launched S-10 Granat or RK-55 Relief designed by NPO Novator. The RK-55 is very similar to the air-launched Kh-55 but the Kh-55 has a drop-down turbofan engine and was designed by MKB Raduga. Both have formed the basis of post-Cold-War missiles, in particular the Sizzler which has a supersonic approach phase.
A Kh-55 production unit was delivered to Shanghai in 1995 and appears to have been used to produce a similar weapon for China.

Development

In the late 1960s, the "Ekho" study conducted by the GosNIIAS institute concluded that it would be more effective to deploy lots of small, subsonic cruise missiles than the much more expensive supersonic missiles then in favour. Work started at the Raduga bureau on an air-launched cruise missile in 1971, with a first test flight in 1976. The appearance of the US Air Force's AGM-86 ALCM in that year gave further impetus to the programme, with the Soviet Air Force issuing a formal requirement for a new air-launched cruise missile in December 1976. The longer-range Kh-55SM was developed a few years after the original went into service. In the late 1980s work began on a replacement missile with either conventional or nuclear warheads and greater stealth. It was designed by Igor Seleznyev of Raduga. The importance of advanced missiles as "force multipliers" increased as Russia's fleet of available cruise-missile bombers declined in the early 1990s. The cancellation of the ambitious Kh-90 ramjet missile due to INF treaty in 1987 led to a renewed emphasis on improving the Kh-55, in particular to achieve the <20 m accuracy required to hit infrastructure targets with conventional - as opposed to nuclear - warheads. First flight of the Kh-101 was in 1998, and evaluation trials started in 2000.
After the end of the Cold War and anti-proliferation treaties restricting the deployment of long-range nuclear missiles, the Russians made efforts to develop tactical versions of the Kh-55 with conventional warheads. First came the 600 km-range Kh-65SE announced in 1992, then the 300 km-range Kh-SD tactical version of the Kh-101 for export, and finally the Kh-555. In 2001 the Russian Air Force are believed to have selected the Kh-101 and Kh-555 for development.
A 1995 Russian document suggested a complete production facility had been transferred to Shanghai, for the development of a nuclear-armed cruise missile. Originally it was thought that this was based on the 300 km-range Raduga Kh-15, but it now appears that it was the Kh-55 that was transferred to China.

Kh-101/102

Latest development of the Kh-55, incorporating a low radar cross-section of about 0.01 square meters. The Kh-101/102 is specifically designed for air-launch, abandoning the circular fuselage cross-section of the Kh-55 for a nose and forward fuselage section "aerodynamically shaped" to produce lift. It is long with a launch weight of and is equipped with a high-explosive, penetrating, or cluster warhead, or a 250 kT nuclear warhead for the Kh-102. The missile is powered by a TRDD-50A turbojet producing 450 kg of thrust to cruise at with a maximum speed of while flying 30–70 m above the ground, and hit fixed targets using a pre-downloaded digital map for terrain following and GLONASS/INS for trajectory correction to achieve accuracy of 6–10 meters; it is claimed to be able to hit small moving targets like vehicles using a terminal electro-optical sensor or imaging infrared system. Range estimates vary from >, to, to as much as with a flight endurance of 10 hours; long range is essential since Russia has few bases abroad and cannot provide distant fighter escorts. The Tu-95MS can carry eight of the weapons on four under-wing pylons and the Tu-160 can be outfitted with two drum launchers each loaded with six missiles for 12 total, but the smaller Tu-22M3 will continue to carry the Kh-555, although it can also carry the Kh-101/Kh-102. The missiles are equipped with an onboard EW defence system as of late 2018. The first tests were conducted in 1995 and the missile was accepted for service in 2012.

Design

It is powered by a single 400 kgf Ukrainian-made, Motor Sich JSC R95-300 turbofan engine, with pop-out wings for cruising efficiency. It can be launched from both high and low altitudes, and flies at subsonic speeds at low levels. After launch, the missile's folded wings, tail surfaces and engine deploy. It is guided through a combination of an inertial guidance system plus a terrain contour-matching guidance system which uses radar and images stored in the memory of an onboard computer to find its target. This allows the missile to guide itself to the target with a high degree of accuracy.
The original Kh-55 had a drop-down engine; the Kh-65SE had a fixed external turbojet engine, while the Kh-SD had its engine inside the body of the missile. Current-production versions are equipped with the increased power of 450 kgf Russian-made NPO Saturn TRDD-50A engine.

Operational history

The original Kh-55 entered service in 31 December 1983. The Kh-55SM followed in 1987. The conventionally armed Kh-55SE was flight tested on 13 January 2000, and first used in exercises over the Black Sea 17–22 April 2000. The Kh-555 is thought to have entered service in 2004, the first pictures of the Kh-101 appeared in 2007.
The Kh-55 can be carried by the Tu-95MS and Tu-142M, and the Kh-55SM is carried by the Tupolev Tu-160. Sixteen Kh-55's can be carried by the Tu-95MS16 variant, ten on underwing hardpoints and six on an MKU-5-6 rotary launcher. The missile was also tested on the Tu-22M bombers.
The Kh-SD tactical version was to have been carried by the Tu-95MS and the Tu-22M. The Kh-101 is expected to be carried by the Tu-160, Tu-95MS16, Tu-22M3 and Su-34.
The end of the Cold War left Ukraine with 1,612 Kh-55s, part of the armament of the 19 Tu-160s of the 184th Heavy Bomber Regiment at Pryluky and the 25 Tu-95MSs of the 182nd Heavy Bomber Regiment at Uzin-Shepelovka. It was reported that Ukraine demanded US$3 billion for the return of the planes and their missiles to Russia. In October 1999, a compromise was reached that saw Russia pay US$285 million for eight Tu-160 and three Tu-95MS bombers and 575 Kh-55 cruise missiles, while the rest were meant to be destroyed under U.S.-led Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction programme. However, in March 2005 Ukraine's prosecutor-general Sviatoslav Piskun said that in 2001, 12 Kh-55s had been exported to Iran in a deal allegedly worth US$49.5 million. Additional six Kh-55s were exported to China. In March 2015, Iran subsequently revealed the existence of the Soumar cruise missile with a design and range comparable to the Kh-55.
In the course of the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War on 17 November 2015, Russian Defence Ministry reported that Tupolev Tu-95MS and Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers launched a total of 34 air-launched cruise missiles against 14 ISIL targets in Syria. While the Tu-95MS used the Kh-55 cruise missiles, the Tu-160 were equipped with the stealthy Kh-101 variant in their first combat use.
On 17 November 2016, modernized Tu-95MS armed with the Kh-555 and Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles launched airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria.
On 17 February 2017, the Tu-95MS strategic bombers, flying from the Russian territory through the airspace of Iran and Iraq, attacked purported ISIL facilities near the Syrian city of Raqqa with the Kh-101 cruise missiles. The targets included purported militant camps and training centers as well as a command center of a major ISIL unit. Russian Tu-95MS long-range bombers struck Daesh targets in Syria again on 5 July 2017, strikes were made from a range of about 1,000 kilometers. On 26 September 2017, Russia's Tu-95MS strategic bombers carried out further missile strikes with Kh-101 on ISIS and the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda in the provinces of Idlib and Deir Ezzor.

Variants

It was believed originally that the RK-55 were land- and submarine-launched derivatives of the Kh-55, but it is now known that the Kh-55 is different from the other two as its motor drops down below the missile during flight.

Operators

Current operators