Russian air force puts X-38 air-to-surface missile into service
Sunday, February 3, 2013 8:00 AM Posted by ZAKIR{F}KHURRAM Labels: Russian Air Force
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The Russian Air Force has put the advanced X-38 air-to-surface missile into service. Although the short-range missile was developed for the T-50 fifth generation fighter jet, the existing bombers and fighter jets, including Su-34 and MiG-29 CMT will be equipped with these missiles.
The missile was tested in great
secrecy in 2012, and was commissioned in late December. The delivery of
missiles will be started shortly. The new missile will be equipped with
independently guided warheads. This solves various tasks and increases
the striking power of T-50 multipurpose fighter jets. The missiles will
be placed inside the jet that is being developed using stealth
technology, says editor-in-chief of the “Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie”
magazine Victor Litovkin.
“A fighter jet may have
special characteristics, including non-visibility to radar and other
detecting equipment, but it is just an aircraft. But when it is equipped
with high-precision guided missiles, this is a high-precision aviation
complex. That can be considered a fifth generation fighter jet. The
fact, that the missile on board the jet increases its low visibility,”
Victor Litovkin said.
The missile will not reflect on
the radar screen. It has another advanced feature. It can orient itself
during the flight using the GLONASS space navigation system. The recent
armed conflicts, including in Afghanistan and the Middle East have
shown that it is difficult to discover targets from air even with the
guidance from the ground because advanced camouflaging systems have been
developed. These missiles will be guided to the target by a GLONASS
satellite, says Victor Litovkin.
“The missile’s
accuracy increases owing to the GLONASS satellite that sees the target
and missile and combines these two points. When taking into account the
fact that this is a supersonic missile, a complicated task is solved, a
missile that is flying at a high speed is guided to a target. In short,
this is a great achievement of Russian missile designers,” Victor
Litovkin added.
The X-38 missile is capable of
hitting manoeuvering armoured vehicles and hideouts at a distance from 3
to 40 kilometers. These missiles will upgrade the combat capacity of
the Russian Air Force.
