New Kh-31 variants nearing production launch

Russia’s Tactical Missiles Corporation (TMC) is successfully upgrading one of its bestsellers, the Kh-31 (AS-17 Krypton) air-to-surface missile. The latest two modifications — the Kh-31PD anti-radiation and Kh-31AD anti-ship variants — are being put through official acceptance tests in the run-up to production launch. Both were first presented at the MAKS 2009 exhibition in Zukovsky, near Moscow, and can be seen again at this year’s Paris Air Show.

Developed back in the late 1980s, the Kh-31 became the world’s first production air-launched missile to be powered by a combined rocket/ramjet engine. The design proved extremely fortunate and has since been replicated in a number of new-generation, improved-performance precision munitions.

TMC says the rocket/ramjet design offers high supersonic speeds (up to and above 1,000 m/s), which can be sustained for much of the missile’s flight trajectory. This complicates enemy countermeasures and gives the missile a definitive edge over enemy air defenses in duel situations. On the other hand, the use of aviation kerosene as fuel makes the Kh-31 very simple to operate and store.