The Kh-28 (russian: Х-28; Nisan-28;

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

: AS-9 'Kyle') was the first

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

anti-radiation missile An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be ...

for tactical aircraft. It entered production in 1973 and is still carried on some

Sukhoi Su-22 The Sukhoi Su-17 (''izdeliye'' S-32) is a variable-sweep wing fighter-bomber developed for the Soviet military. Its NATO reporting name is "Fitter". Developed from the Sukhoi Su-7, the Su-17 was the first variable-sweep wing aircraft to enter ...

s in developing countries but is no longer in Russian service. Use of the Kh-28 was restricted by its weight, limited seeker head, bulk and fuelling requirements, and it was superseded by the smaller, solid-fuel

Kh-58 The Kh-58 (russian: Х-58; NATO:AS-11 'Kilter') is a Soviet anti-radiation missile with a range of 120 km. the Kh-58U variant was still the primary anti-radiation missile of Russia and its allies. It is being superseded by the Kh-31. The N ...

(AS-11 'Kilter') in the early 1980s.

Development

Soviet offensive doctrine in the early 1960s assumed that widespread use of nuclear weapons would disable Western radar-based air defence systems through

electromagnetic pulse An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also a transient electromagnetic disturbance (TED), is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy. Depending upon the source, the origin of an EMP can be natural or artificial, and can occur as an electromagnetic fi ...

s (EMP) effects. Also available fro
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/ref> Consequently, they paid little attention to the development of

anti-radar missile An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be t ...

s. However, in January 1963 the Berezniak design bureau (which became MKB Raduga in 1967) was tasked with developing such a missile as part of the K-28P weapon complex based around a '

Wild Weasel Wild Weasel is a code name given by the United States Air Force (USAF) to an aircraft of any type equipped with anti-radiation missiles and tasked with the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD): destroying the radar and surface-to-air mis ...

' version of the Yak-28 'Brewer' bomber (hence -28; the 'K' stands for kompleks, P stands for protivradiolokatsyonny 'anti-radar'). The main difficulty came in the design of the APR-28 guidance system undertaken by CKB-111 (later NPO Avtomatika). This meant that the Kh-28 missile was not ready until the 1970s. Flight trials were carried out on a Yak-28N, but by then the Yak-28 had ceased production and was perceived as obsolete, and the K-28P system was cancelled. Instead the Kh-28 was adapted for use by standard attack aircraft, in particular the

Su-24 The Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name: Fencer) is a supersonic, all-weather attack aircraft developed in the Soviet Union. The aircraft has a variable-sweep wing, twin-engines and a side-by-side seating arrangement for its crew of two. It was ...

'Fencer-A' and Su-17M 'Fitter-C'.

Design

The Kh-28 was the first liquid-fuel Soviet anti-radiation missile and was quickly replaced by the solid-fuel Kh-58 missile, according to research from Dr. Carlo Kopp, the editor in chief of Air Power Australia. The design of the Kh-28 was similar to – but smaller than – Raduga's

Kh-22 The Kh-22 (russian: Х-22; AS-4 'Kitchen') is a large, long-range anti-ship missile developed by MKB Raduga in the Soviet Union. It was designed for use against aircraft carriers and carrier battle groups, with either a conventional or nuclear wa ...

(AS-4 'Kitchen') and

KSR-5 The Raduga KSR-5 (NATO reporting name AS-6 Kingfish) was a long-range, air-launched cruise missile and anti ship missile developed by the Soviet Union. It was essentially a scaled down version of the Kh-22 'Kitchen', built to be carried by ...

(AS-6 'Kingfish') anti-shipping missiles. The Su-24 could carry one under each wing, and used the onboard ''Filin'' ('Eagle Owl') targeting system. The Su-17M could only carry one Kh-28 on the centreline, and used the ''Myetyel''/''Metel'' ('Blizzard') system in a pod under the right wing, later replaced by the ''Vyuga'' ('Snowstorm') pod. The APR-28 seeker on the original Kh-28 could only target the

MIM-14 Nike-Hercules The Nike Hercules, initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14, was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. It was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead, bu ...

and

English Electric Thunderbird The English Electric Thunderbird was a British surface-to-air missile produced for the British Army. Thunderbird was primarily intended to attack higher altitude targets at ranges up to approximately , providing wide-area air defence for the Army ...

SAM systems, although the ''Filin'' could recognise other frequencies. The Kh-28M had an updated X-band seeker that could recognise the MIM-23 Hawk's AN/MPQ-33 and subsequent AN/MPQ-39 target-illumination radars, and the AN/MPQ-34 low-level target-acquisition radar. Other seekers may have been produced. The propulsion system consists of a fuel tank and a separate tank for the red fuming nitric acid (RFNA) oxidiser. One problem was that the missile required fuelling just before flight, and not many airfields had the appropriate facilities. Range is given variously as 80–95 km or 120 km.

Operational history

The Kh-28 entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1973, and has been widely exported. It was cleared for use on the Su-17M/Su-20/Su-22M, Su-24M, Tupolev Tu-16, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25BM, MiG-27 and Tupolev Tu-22M aircraft. It was also tested on an Antonov An-12BL SEAD variant of the transport that could carry four of the missiles. A missile believed to be a Kh-28 was captured in Iraq by US forces during the first Gulf War in April 1991. One man was burnt by RFNA from the oxidiser tank while he was making it safe.

Operators

* * * ; others ** from aviation arsenals ** ** unknown, active or depot in stockage or not operational ** unknown, maybe active or on depot stockage ** unknown status or not operational ** unknown, probably active or stockage in depot

Former operators

* passed on to successor states * * * * *

Variants

* Kh-28 (''Izdeliye'' 93, D-8) - original version targeting

Nike-Hercules The Nike Hercules, initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14, was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. It was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead, but ...

and

Thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...

SAMs * Kh-28M - improved version capable against Hawk and possibly other radars * Kh-28E - export version * Nisan-28 or Nissan-28 - Iraqi version of Kh-28E displayed in Baghdad in 1989 that was reported to have three seeker heads for different frequency bands.

Similar weapons

AGM-78 Standard ARM The AGM-78 Standard ARM was an anti-radiation missile developed by General Dynamics, United States. It was built on the airframe of the RIM-66 Standard surface-to-air missile, resulting in a very large weapon with considerable range, allowing i ...

– US anti-radar missile with similar range but only Mach 2.0 *

Martel missile The Martel is an Anglo-French missile. The name Martel is a contraction of ''Missile, Anti-Radiation, Television'', referring to the guidance options. There are two variants, the passive radar anti-radiation missile version, AS.37, and the televi ...

AS37 – Anglo-French first-generation anti-radar missile, subsonic with 60 km range

Notes

References

* * * {{Russian and Soviet military designation sequences Kh-028 Kh-028 Cold War air-to-surface missiles of the Soviet Union Kh-028 Kh-028 MKB Raduga products Anti-radiation missiles of the Cold War Military equipment introduced in the 1970s