Raduga Kh-22
Encyclopedia
Anti-ship missile
Anti-ship missiles are guided missiles that are designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming type, many use a combination of inertial guidance and radar homing...
developed by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. It was intended for use against US Navy aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
s and carrier battle group
Carrier battle group
A carrier battle group consists of an aircraft carrier and its escorts, together composing the group. The first naval task forces built around carriers appeared just prior to and during World War II. The Imperial Japanese Navy was the first to assemble a large number of carriers into a single...
s, with either a conventional or nuclear warhead.
Development
Analyzing WW2 naval battles and encounters in the late 40s and early 50s Soviet military thinkers correctly assessed that the times of large seaborne battles were over and that stand-off attacks were the way to neutralize and incapacitate large battle groups without having to field similar force against them. Substituting cruise missiles for air attacks, VVS and AV-MF commanders set about to convert their heavy bombers as raketonosets, missile carriers, which could be launched against approaching enemy fleets and task forces from coastal or island airfields. The Kh-22 (Complex 22) weapon was developed by the Raduga design bureauMKB Raduga
MKB Raduga is a Russian aerospace company, concerned with the production of various missile systems and related technologies. It is headquartered in Dubna in the Moscow Oblast...
and used to arm the Tupolev Tu-22
Tupolev Tu-22
The Tupolev Tu-22 was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with the Soviet military in the 1960s, and the last examples were retired during the 1990s...
.
Design
The Kh-22 used an Isayev liquid-fuel rocket engineRocket engine
A rocket engine, or simply "rocket", is a jet engineRocket Propulsion Elements; 7th edition- chapter 1 that uses only propellant mass for forming its high speed propulsive jet. Rocket engines are reaction engines and obtain thrust in accordance with Newton's third law...
, fueled with hydrazine
Hydrazine
Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the formula N2H4. It is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odor. Hydrazine is highly toxic and dangerously unstable unless handled in solution. Approximately 260,000 tons are manufactured annually...
and IRFNA (inhibited red fuming nitric acid), giving it a maximum speed of Mach 4
Mach number
Mach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any other fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions, including those of temperature and pressure...
and a range of up to 400 km (216 nmi). It could be used in either high-altitude or low-altitude modes. In high-altitude mode it climbed to an altitude of 27000 m (88,582.7 ft) and made a high-speed dive into the target, with a terminal speed of about Mach 4. In low-altitude mode, it climbed to 12000 m (39,370.1 ft) and made a shallow dive at about Mach 1.2, making the final approach at an altitude under 500 m (1,640.4 ft). Guidance was by gyro-stabilized autopilot, with a radio altimeter.
It is claimed that when using a shaped charge 1000 kg (2,204.6 lb) warhead, it blew a hole 5 m (16.4 ft) in diameter and penetrated 12 m (39.4 ft) deep during Soviet tests.
Operational history
The first service-ready missiles were ready in 19621962 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1962:- Events :* Early 1962 – In Operation High Jump, the United States Navy McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II fighter sets a number of world climb-to altitude records: 34.523 seconds to 3,000 meters , 48.787 seconds to 6,000 meters , 61.629 seconds to...
.
The main launch platform is the Tu-22M 'Backfire'. Russia has also used it on the Тu-22К 'Blinder-B' and Tupolev Tu-95К22 'Bear-G'
Tupolev Tu-95
The Tupolev Tu-95 is a large, four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. First flown in 1952, the Tu-95 entered service with the former Soviet Union in 1956 and is expected to serve the Russian Air Force until at least 2040...
.
Variants
Two initial versions were built, the Kh-22A with a large conventional warhead and the Kh-22N, with a 350-1000-kiloton nuclear warhead. In the mid-1960s this was supplemented by the Kh-22P, an anti-radiation missileAnti-radiation missile
An anti-radiation missile is a missile which is designed to detect and home on an enemy radio emission source. Typically these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communication can also be targeted in this manner.- Air-to-Ground :Most ARM designs...
for the destruction of radar installations. In the 1970s the Kh-22 was upgraded to Kh-22M and Kh-22MA standard, with new attack profiles, somewhat longer range, and a datalink allowing mid-course updates.
- Kh-22E - a conventionally-armed version for export
- Kh-32 - a conventionally-armed deep upgrade variant of Kh-22 for modernised Tu-22M3
The principal weapon of modernised Tu-22M3 will be the Kh-32 supersonic air-to-surface missile developed by NPO Raduga as an upgrade of the familiar Kh-22. It features an improved rocket motor and a new seeker head.
The old Kh-22 anti-shipping missile was severely handicapped by its shortrange - a few hundered kilometers, that is, within visual range for a high flying aircraft. Over-the-horizon attackes were all but impossible: the Kh-22's seeker head could not find the target. In a real-life attack scenario against a carrier task force, the Tu-22M3 would have to break through fightercover , inevitably suffering loss.
Raguda new Kh-32 is the solution. While Kh-22 climbs to 22000m and acclerates to about 3600 km/h on the way to target, the Kh-32 at first soars up almost to the outer space an altitude of some 44 km/27.3 miles then "looks beyond the horizon", detecting the target at 600 km or even 1000 km range. The warhead/seeker of the new missile is much smarter - it can classify the targets and select the priority target an aircraft carrier or cruiser.
Also the Kh-32 closes on the target at much higher speed, which makes it impossible to intercept. In Russia that this missile and the Tu-22M3 modernisation to carry it are considered a serious military detterent and an effective weapon against the most powerful carrier task force. Test of the Kh-32 were successfuly conpleted back in late 1990 in so doing the long range aviation worked in close co-operation with the Navy,which willing supplied decommisioned warships as target.
Former Operators
IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
- Launched from Tu-22Tupolev Tu-22The Tupolev Tu-22 was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with the Soviet military in the 1960s, and the last examples were retired during the 1990s...
during Iran-Iraq WarIran-Iraq WarThe Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century...
, all retired after the US invasion2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
. - All retired after Ukrainian Tu-22MTupolev Tu-22MThe Tupolev Tu-22M is a supersonic, swing-wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Soviet Union. Significant numbers remain in service with the Russian Air Force....
fleet's decommission.
External links
- http://airwar.ru/weapon/kr/x22.html