Russia Nears End Of Development Of High-Speed Air-Launched Missile

GDANSK, Poland—An increasing number of signs indicate that work on a new Russian high-performance air-launched missile is nearing completion.

On March 14, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited the headquarters of the Tactical Missiles Corp. (KTRV) near Moscow with Alexey Krivoruchko, the deputy defense minister responsible for procurement. KTRV CEO Boris Obnosov escorted the military leaders around the plant.

In a brief video clip, Shoigu gave a short speech calling for doubling production of air-launched weapons to meet demand resulting from military operations in Ukraine.

“You have already recruited staff, quite qualified staff who works on the rise, in good spirits. The components issues have been resolved,” he said. 

Even more interesting was the last sentence of Shoigu’s speech. “We hope that the commitments you have made ... for 2023, 2024, and for the entire program will be fulfilled and, in addition to what we already have, there will be a new product that ... the armed forces of other countries do not have.” 

Shoigu might have been referring to a missile that Obnosov had discussed two years prior.

During an interview with the TASS news agency in June 2021, Obnosov said the corporation is conducting “research and development work to create a new-generation high-speed anti-ship missile with increased range and speed, with improved jamming resistance.”

Obnosov was responding to a question about further development of the Kh-31 missile, which flies at a maximum speed of Mach 3.5 at a distance of up to 155 mi. (250 km). “This advanced model will complement the existing range of air-launched weapons created by KTRV,” Obsonov said. That means the new missile is not a Kh-31 replacement but a complement to it, similar in purpose but with much higher characteristics.

All this together allows us to conclude the new missile that Shoigu and Obnosov were discussing is the Kh-MTs. Its future operational designation is expected to be the Kh-41. This missile has never been presented to the public, although the project started at OKB Zvezda around 1990.

The new generation Kh-MTs (multiple targets) tactical and theater-level air-to-surface missile is to be universal in terms of the carrier. It is intended for arming multirole fighters, bombers, surface ships, submarines and coastal launchers. The Kh-MTs is intended to fight surface ships, as well as some types of ground and air targets (e.g. early warning aircraft). The high effectiveness of the missile is to be ensured by a combined guidance system consisting of an active radar channel, a broadband passive radar channel and final guidance, probably in the form of an infrared sensor. 

This allows the missile to operate with insufficiently accurate initial target indication and in a heavy jamming environment. The salvo of missiles can operate in a common information field. The missile is to fly to the target along various trajectories, for example with a jump to an altitude of 30-35 km (98,000-115,000 ft.) and a dive at the target at an angle of 70-80° or reaching the target at an altitude of 3-5 m in the terminal phase.

It remains unclear whether the Kh-MTs missile is related to Russia’s hypersonic missile programs. 

Obnosov described the missile as flying faster and farther than the Kh-31 but did not use the term “hypersonic.” Nevertheless, it is very likely that the “izdeliye 75” is a hypersonic missile.