AS-17 Krypton
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The Kh-31 (; AS-17 'Krypton') is a Soviet and Russian
air-to-surface missile An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...
carried by aircraft such as the
MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twinjet, twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the MiG-29, along with the large ...
,
Su-35 The Sukhoi Su-35 (-35; NATO reporting name: Flanker-E/M, occasionally nicknamed "Super Flanker") is the designation for two improved derivatives of the Su-27 air-defence fighter. They are single-seat, twin-engine, supermaneuverable, 4.5 ge ...
and the
Su-57 The Sukhoi Su-57 (; NATO reporting name: Felon) is a Twinjet, twin-engine stealth aircraft, stealth Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft developed by Sukhoi. It is the product of the PAK FA (, prospective aeronautical comp ...
. It is capable of
Mach The Mach number (M or Ma), often only Mach, (; ) is a dimensionless quantity in fluid dynamics representing the ratio of flow velocity past a Boundary (thermodynamic), boundary to the local speed of sound. It is named after the Austrian physi ...
3.5 and was the first supersonic
anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM or ASM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. ...
that could be launched by tactical aircraft. There are several variants; the Kh-31 is best known as an
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 ta ...
(ARM) but there are also anti-ship and target drone versions. There has been talk of adapting it to make an "
AWACS The Boeing E-3 Sentry is an American airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft developed by Boeing. E-3s are commonly known as AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System). Derived from the Boeing 707 airliner, it provides all-weathe ...
killer", a long-range
air-to-air missile An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft (including unmanned aircraft such as cruise missiles). AAMs are typically powered by one or more rocket motors, usually solid-fuel roc ...
.


Development

The proliferation of
surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...
s (SAMs) has made the
Suppression of Enemy Air Defences Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD ), also known in the United States as "Wild Weasel" and (initially) "Iron Hand" operations, are military actions to suppress enemy surface-based anti-aircraft warfare, air defenses, including surface-to-a ...
(SEAD) a priority for any modern air force intending offensive action. Knocking out air search radars and
fire control radar A fire-control radar (FCR) is a radar that is designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and range rate) to a fire-control system in order to direct weapons such that they hit a target. They are sometim ...
s is an essential part of this mission. ARMs must have sufficient range that the launch platform is out of range of the SAMs, high speed to reduce the risk of being shot down and a seeker that can detect a range of radar types, but they do not need a particularly big warhead. The Soviet Union's first ARM was developed by the
Raduga OKB MKB Raduga (, meaning Raduga Design Bureau (), where ''raduga'' literally means "rainbow") is a Russian aerospace company, concerned with the production of various missile-systems and related technologies. It is headquartered in Dubna, Moscow ...
engineering group responsible for the Soviet Union's missiles for heavy bombers. The Kh-22P was developed from the 6-tonne
Kh-22 The Kh-22 "Storm" (, NATO reporting name AS-4 'Kitchen') is a large, long-range anti-ship cruise missile developed by MKB Raduga in the Soviet Union. It was designed for use against aircraft carriers and carrier battle groups, with either a con ...
(AS-4 "Kitchen") missile. Experience gained with this led in 1973 to the
Kh-28 The Kh-28 (; Nisan-28; NATO reporting name, NATO: AS-9 'Kyle') was the first Soviet Union, Soviet anti-radiation missile (ARM) for tactical aircraft. It entered production in 1973 and is still carried on some Sukhoi Su-22s in developing countries ...
(AS-9 "Kyle") carried by tactical aircraft such as the Su-7B,
Su-17 The Sukhoi Su-17 (''izdeliye'' S-32; NATO reporting name: Fitter) is a variable-sweep wing fighter-bomber developed for the Soviet military. Developed from the Sukhoi Su-7, the Su-17 was the first variable-sweep wing aircraft to enter Soviet serv ...
and
Su-24 The Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name: Fencer) is a supersonic, night fighter, all-weather tactical bomber developed in the Soviet Union. The aircraft has a variable-sweep wing, Twinjet, twin engines and a side-by-side seating arrangement for it ...
. It had Mach 3 capability and a range, greater than the contemporary
AGM-78 Standard ARM The AGM-78 Standard ARM or STARM 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, al ...
. The Kh-28 was succeeded by the
Kh-58 The Kh-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 NATO reporting ...
in 1978, which has similar speed and range but replaces the dual-fuel rocket motor with a much safer RDTT solid propellant. The development of more sophisticated SAMs such as the
MIM-104 Patriot The MIM-104 Patriot is a mobile interceptor missile surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary such system used by the United States Army and several allied states. It is manufactured by the U.S. defense contractor Raytheon and derives it ...
and the US Navy's Aegis combat system put pressure on the Soviets to develop better ARMs in turn. Zvezda came at the problem from a different angle to Raduga, having a background in lightweight air-to-air missiles. However, in the mid-1970s they had developed the successful
Kh-25 The Kh-25/Kh-25M (; NATO: AS-10 'Karen) is a family of Soviet lightweight air-to-ground missiles with a modular range of guidance systems and a range of 10 km. The anti-radiation variant (Kh-25MP) is known to NATO as the AS-12 ' Kegler an ...
family of short-range air-to-surface missiles, including the Kh-25MP (AS-12 "Kegler") for anti-radar use. Zvezda started work on a long-range ARM and the first launch of the Kh-31 was in 1982. It entered service in 1988 and was first displayed in public in 1991, the Kh-31P at Dubai and the Kh-31A at Minsk. In December 1997 it was reported that a small number of Kh-31s had been delivered to China, but that "production had yet to begin". It was around this time that the Russians sold
Su-30MKK The Sukhoi Su-30MKK (NATO reporting name: Flanker-G)MKK stands for Russian ''Mnogofunktzionniy Kommercheskiy Kitayski'' (Cyrillic: Многофунктзионний Коммерческий Китайски), "Multifunctional Commercial for C ...
'Flanker-G' aircraft to the Chinese. It seems that the original deliveries were of the original Russian model designated as X-31, to allow testing while the KR-1 model was being developed for licence production. Local production may have started by July 2005. Russian development has accelerated since Zvezda was subsumed into the Tactical Missiles Corporation in 2002, with the announcement of the 'D' extended range models and the 'M' model mid-life updates (see Variants section below).


Design

In many respects the Kh-31 is a miniaturised version of the P-270 Moskit (SS-N-22 'Sunburn') and was reportedly designed by the same man. The missile is conventionally shaped, with cruciform wings and control surfaces made from titanium. The two-stage propulsion is notable. On launch, a solid-fuel booster in the tail accelerates the missile to Mach 1.8 and the motor is discarded. Then four air intakes open up and, as in the Franco-German ANS/ANF, the empty rocket case becomes the combustion chamber of a kerosene-fuelled
ramjet A ramjet is a form of airbreathing jet engine that requires forward motion of the engine to provide air for combustion. Ramjets work most efficiently at supersonic speeds around and can operate up to . Ramjets can be particularly appropriat ...
, which takes it beyond Mach 4. The L-111E seeker of the anti-radar version has a unique antenna, an
interferometer Interferometry is a technique which uses the '' interference'' of superimposed waves to extract information. Interferometry typically uses electromagnetic waves and is an important investigative technique in the fields of astronomy, fiber opt ...
array of seven spiral antennas on a steerable platform. The seekers delivered to China in 2001-2 were long, in diameter, and weighed .


Operational history

The Kh-31P ARM entered service in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in 1988 and the Kh-31A anti-shipping version in 1989. Unlike its predecessors, it can be fitted to almost any of Russia's tactical aircraft, from the
Su-17 The Sukhoi Su-17 (''izdeliye'' S-32; NATO reporting name: Fitter) is a variable-sweep wing fighter-bomber developed for the Soviet military. Developed from the Sukhoi Su-7, the Su-17 was the first variable-sweep wing aircraft to enter Soviet serv ...
to
MiG-31 The Mikoyan MiG-31 (; NATO reporting name: Foxhound) is a supersonic interceptor aircraft developed for the Soviet Air Forces by the Mikoyan design bureau as a replacement for the earlier MiG-25 "Foxbat"; the MiG-31 is based on and shares de ...
. In 2001 India bought Kh-31s for its
Su-30MKI The Sukhoi Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a two-seater, twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for th ...
; they appear to have bought 60 Kh-31A and 90 Kh-31P. A few Kh-31P/KR-1's were delivered to China in 1997 but these were apparently for testing and development work. The Chinese ordered Russian missiles in late 2002 or early 2003, leading to 200 KR-1's in their inventory by 2005; the Chinese press reported in July 2005 that Su-30MKK's of the 3rd Air Division had been equipped with the missiles. The
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
bought
MA-31 The MA-31 was a conversion of the Kh-31, an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union during the 1980s, for use as a target drone by the United States Navy. Although the missile proved successful in this role, political complications resulted ...
target drones. An $18.468-million order for thirty-four MA-31 was placed in 1999, but this order was blocked by the Russians.Buckley 2007 The MA-31 was launched from an
F-4 Phantom The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bowers ...
, and work was done on a kit to launch it from an F-16.. Sales pitch from Boeing, has useful diagrams of flight profiles etc According to some reports, the missile was used by the Russian Air Force during the South Ossetian conflict in 2008. In particular, it was reported that on August 10, 2008 a Russian Air Force Su-34 struck a Georgian
air defense Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...
radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
near the city of Gori with Kh-31Ps. Georgian air defenses were disabled in order to avoid further losses. The Kh-31 was used by Russia during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
. According to senior sources of the
Ukrainian Air Force The Ukrainian Air Force (, PS ZSU) is the air force of Ukraine and one of the eight Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU). Its current form was created in 2004 by merging the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces into the Air Fo ...
, some
9K33 Osa The 9K33 ''Osa'' (; English: "wasp"; NATO reporting name SA-8 ''Gecko'') is a highly mobile, low-altitude, short-range tactical surface-to-air missile system developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and fielded in 1972. Its export version nam ...
and
9K37 Buk The Buk (; "beech" (tree), ) is a family of self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, and designed to counter cruise missiles, smart bombs and ro ...
systems were destroyed by Kh-31P and Kh-58 missiles during the war.


Variants

* Kh-31A - is a supersonic
anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM or ASM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. ...
with an active radar seeker to be used against vessels up to 4,500 tons. The missile has a minimum range of and maximum range of . Missile is
sea-skimming Sea skimming is a technique many anti-ship missiles and some fighter or strike aircraft use to avoid radar and infrared detection and to lower the probability of being shot down during their approach to the target. Method Sea-skimming anti-s ...
as it approaches the target. The missile uses a penetrating warhead. * Kh-31P (Type 77P) - passive radiation seeker head for use as an anti-radiation missile. Stays at high altitude throughout its flight, allowing higher speeds and increasing range to . The Kh-31P missile comes in three variants, each optimized against a different set of radiation sources, typically targeting enemy surface-to-air missile systems. * Kh-31PM - modernized version of the Kh-31P with increased range and new multi-band L-130 seeker sensor * Kh-31AD/Kh-31PD ("Kh-31 Mod 2") - increase range through increasing the fuselage from to long. As of 2012, the Kh-31PD is serially produced. Kh-31AD is in series production since 2013. * Kh-31PK - installed non-contact fuse, maximum speed 900 m/s, range 120–160 km. Destined for Su-27SM, Su-30MK, Su-35. In serial production since 2009. *
MA-31 The MA-31 was a conversion of the Kh-31, an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union during the 1980s, for use as a target drone by the United States Navy. Although the missile proved successful in this role, political complications resulted ...
- telemetry and other systems installed by McDonnell Douglas/Boeing for use by the US Navy as a target drone. Tested between 1996 and 2007; a version upgraded with GPS, the MA-31PG, was offered to the Navy as a replacement for the MQM-8 Vandal but they bought the
GQM-163 Coyote The GQM-163 Coyote is a supersonic sea skimming, sea-skimming missile target built by Northrop Grumman (formerly Orbital ATK) and used by the United States Navy as a successor to the MQM-8 Vandal. Orbital's proposal was chosen over the MA-31, a ...
. Even with the additional equipment, the MA-31 was capable of Mach 2.7 and 15G manoevres in its anti-ship (sea-skimming) flight profile and Mach 3.5 in ARM mode at . * KR-1 - version of the Kh-31P exported to China in 1997. It seems that Zvezda wanted to sell an initial batch of KR-1's to China, before the KR-1 went into production in China. Rather than the original three seeker modules, the KR-1 has a single K-112E "export" seeker targeting D- F band (
S band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the conventiona ...
) emissions, and reportedly optimised for specific Taiwanese radars. *
YJ-91 The YJ-91 () is an anti-radiation air-to-surface cruise missile produced by the People's Republic of China. It is a derivative of the Zvezda-Strela Kh-31P anti-radiation variant. Development In 1994, China purchased the right to manufacture ...
''Ying Ji 91'' - Chinese missile based on the Kh-31P. They are also reported to have developed an anti-shipping version with an indigenous active seeker, and are looking to develop this for use in submarines. The name YJ-91 was already in use by 1997, and may have been a Chinese name for the original Russian missiles designated X-31 by the Russians. By 2005, the name YJ-93 was being applied to missiles made in China, but Western reports generally do not distinguish between YJ-91 and YJ-93. An active/passive air-to-air version for use against slow-moving support aircraft, a so-called "AWACS killer", was announced at the 1992 Moscow air show with range. That would be less than the promised by the
Vympel R-37 The Vympel R-37 (NATO reporting name: AA-13 Axehead) is a Russian long-range air-to-air missile. The missile and its variants also had the names K-37, ''izdeliye'' 610 and RVV-BD (Ракета Воздух-Воздух Большой Дальн ...
(AA-13 'Arrow') and Novator
R-172 The Novator KS-172 is a Russian air-to-air missile project designed as an " AWACS killer" at ranges up to 400 km. The missile had various names during its history, including K-100, Izdeliye 172 ('project 172'), AAM-L (RVV-L), KS–172, KS- ...
missiles, but a Kh-31 derivative could be carried by a wider range of aircraft. However this may have been mere propaganda; in 2004 the Tactical Missiles Corporation "emphatically denied" that it had ever worked on an air-to-air version of the Kh-31. In 2005 rumours emerged of a Russian "AWACS-killer missile" based on the Kh-31A anti-shipping model, and of the Chinese adapting the YJ-91, derived from the Kh-31P, for the same purpose. In 2017, a representative of the
Mikoyan Russian Aircraft Corporation "MiG" (), commonly known as Mikoyan and MiG, is a Russian aerospace and defence company headquartered in Begovoy District, Moscow. Mikoyan was the successor to the Soviet Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau (Ми ...
company claimed that an air-to-air variant of the Kh-31 was in development, intended to equip the
MiG-35 The Mikoyan MiG-35 (; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum-F) is a Russian multirole fighter that is designed by Mikoyan, a division of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). Marketed as a 4++ generation jet fighter, it is a further development of th ...
, but this is not confirmed.


Operators


Current operators

* – 125 delivered in 2007-2009 * * * * – Ordered Kh-31P missiles in 2019 * – 150 * – 222 delivered in 2009-2010 * – H-31P * – 87 delivered in 2008-2010 * * * - Kh-31P, Kh-31A


Potential operators

* – In January 2021, the
Bangladesh Air Force The Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) () is the aerial warfare branch of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The air force is primarily responsible for air defence of Bangladesh's sovereign territory as well as providing air support to the Bangladesh Army a ...
floated a tender for the procurement of Kh-31A missiles for MiG-29B aircraft.


Former operators

* - unknown number purchased from the Soviet Union *


See also

*
DRDO Anti-Radiation Missile The Rudram () is a series of Supersonic missile, supersonic and Hypersonic weapon, hypersonic air-to-surface (ASM) Air-to-surface missile, ground attack and anti-radiation missile, anti-radiation missiles in development by the Defence Research ...
*
YJ-91 The YJ-91 () is an anti-radiation air-to-surface cruise missile produced by the People's Republic of China. It is a derivative of the Zvezda-Strela Kh-31P anti-radiation variant. Development In 1994, China purchased the right to manufacture ...
- Chinese missile based on Kh-31 *
P-270 Moskit The P-270 Moskit (; ) is a Soviet supersonic ramjet powered anti-ship cruise missile. Its GRAU designation is 3M80, air launched variant is the Kh-41 and its NATO reporting name is SS-N-22 Sunburn (one of two missiles with that designation). The ...
(SS-N-22 'Sunburn') *
AGM-88 HARM The AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) is a tactical, air-to-surface anti-radiation missile designed to home in on electronic transmissions coming from surface-to-air radar systems. It was originally developed by Texas Instruments ...
- main US ARM * ALARM missile - British ARM with loiter capability *
MAR-1 The MAR-1 is an air-to-surface (ASM) and surface-to-surface (SSM) anti-radiation missile, anti-radiation missile (ARM) with GPS/INS capability under development by Brazil's Mectron and the Aerospace Technology and Science Department (Departament ...
- Brazilian ARM project *
AGM-136 Tacit Rainbow The AGM-136A ''Tacit Rainbow'' was a United States military anti-radiation missile program run from 1982 to 1991. The requirement was for a low-cost air-launchable system to aid in the SEAD, destruction of enemy air defense networks. The proposed ...
- US ARM cancelled in 1991


Notes


References


Sources

* {{Russian and Soviet missiles, ASM Kh-031 Cold War air-to-surface missiles of the Soviet Union Kh-031 Tactical Missiles Corporation products Anti-radiation missiles of the Cold War Military equipment introduced in the 1980s