The Raduga Kh-20 (

NATO reporting name NATO uses a system of code names, called reporting names, to denote military aircraft and other equipment used by post-Soviet states, former Warsaw Pact countries, China, and other countries. The system assists military communications by providi ...

: AS-3 Kangaroo) was an air launched cruise missile armed with a

thermonuclear warhead A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

which was developed by 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 ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. The Kh-20 was designed to be air-launched.

Background

Kh-20

cruise missile A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided missile that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large payload over long distances with high precision. Modern cru ...

was designed by M.I. Gurevich for the

Tu-95 The Tupolev Tu-95 (; NATO reporting name: "Bear") is a large, four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. First flown in 1952, the Tu-95 entered service with the Long-Range Aviation of the Soviet Air Forces in 1956 and ...

strategic bomber. Development began in 1954, drawing on experience with

MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 an ...

and

MiG-19 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (; NATO reporting name: Farmer) is a Soviet second generation, single-seat, twinjet fighter aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. A comparable U.S. " Cen ...

fighters. Two

were converted to

K missile carriers in 1955. Initial testing of the missile systems was performed using four specially modified

fighters designated SM-20/I and SM-20/II for mothership-missile interface and airborne launch testing, and SM-K/I and SM-K/II for guidance system and ground launch testing. First SM-20/I launch from

K was made in the fall of 1956. One of the greatest challenges in the early development was starting the missile's

Lyulka AL-7 The Lyulka AL-7 was a turbojet designed by Arkhip Mikhailovich Lyulka and produced by his Lyulka design bureau. The engine was produced between 1954 and 1970.Gunston 1989, p.100. Design and development The AL-7 had supersonic airflow through th ...

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

engine after prolonged flight in the very cold upper atmosphere. Kh-20 began flight testing on March 17, 1958. The first launch was unsuccessful and range and accuracy did not meet expectations. This was in part because the warhead and the guidance system weight exceeded projected limits. Government trials took place between October 15, 1958, and November 1, 1959, and consisted of 16 launches of which 11 were considered successful although accuracy still left much to be desired. Kh-20 entered service in 1960. The production version, designated Kh-20M, featured an improved nuclear warhead. The arsenal initially consisted of two Kh-20 per

K, which amounted to 130 missiles for approximately 40

K and 25

KD. This number was later reduced to one missile per aircraft. Kh-20 was initially intended for retaliation strikes against major targets in the United States. However, arming a

with Kh-20 took 22 hours and the first-generation thermonuclear warheads were difficult to store which made them unsuitable for first-response weapons. Therefore, Kh-20 was relegated to secondary strikes against targets surviving the initial attack and against aircraft carrier groups. Arming time was eventually reduced to 4 hours and reliability was improved. The weakest link of the Kh-20 remained its guidance system and good accuracy required manual guidance which was vulnerable to jamming. An attempt to adapt

Myasishchev M-4 The Myasishchev M-4 ''Molot'' (), USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 37", Air Standardization Coordinating Committee, ASCC reporting name Bison) was a four-engined strategic bomber designed by Myasishchev, Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev and manufa ...

for Kh-20 was unsuccessful because of the missile's large size. High-altitude supersonic target M-20 was also abandoned due to high cost. By the late 1970s, Kh-20 no longer had the performance required to penetrate enemy air defenses and it was replaced by

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 ...

(NATO designation AS-4 Kitchen) by mid-1980s.

Operators

;: The

Soviet Air Forces The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

were the only operator of the Kh-20.

Specifications

*Wingspan: 9.15 m *Length: 14.95 m *Diameter: 1.81 m *Height: 3.02 m *Empty weight: 5,878 kg *Launch weight: 12,000 kg *Engine: 1x

*Cruise speed:

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 ...

2.0 *Cruise ceiling: Target-dependent, up to 20,000 m *Range: 380–600 km *Guidance: Inertial with remote correction over radio *Warhead: 2,300 kg

thermonuclear Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nuclei, nuclei/neutron by-products. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of ener ...

, 0.8-3.0 Mt

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kh-020 Nuclear cruise missiles of the Soviet Union Cruise missiles of the Soviet Union Air-to-surface missiles of the Soviet Union MKB Raduga products Military equipment introduced in the 1960s