Topic: Raduga Kh-55 (AS-15 Kent)

[tigerwing]

General characteristics

Primary function: Strategic cruise missile, air/land/sea launched
Contractor: Raduga OKB / M. I. Kalinin Machine Building Plant
Length: 8.09 m (26 ft 7 in)
Weight: 1,700 kg (3,750 lb)
Diameter: Kh-55: 0.514 m (1 ft 8 in), Kh-55SM: 0.77 m (2 ft 6 in)
Wingspan: 3.1 m (10 ft 2 in)
Range: Kh-55: 2,500 km (1,550 miles), Kh-55SM: 3,000 km (1,860 miles)
Speed: 571 to 917 km/h (Mach 0.48-0.77, 355 to 570 mph)
Guidance System: Inertial navigation element with terrain contour-matching system
Warheads: 200 kt nuclear
Date deployed: 1984

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The Raduga Kh-55 Granat (Russian: Х-55 Гранат (Granat), NATO reporting name AS-15 'Kent') is a Soviet/ Russian subsonic long-range cruise missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. It was designed by MKB Raduga, partially in response to U.S. cruise missiles in the same class (particularly the BGM-109 Tomahawk and AGM-86 missiles). Designed to be launched either from bomber aircraft or from submarines, it was built to carry a conventional or nuclear warhead of up to a 200 kiloton yield over a range of up to 3,000 km (1,860 miles).

Three aircraft versions of this missile are known as: Kh-55 (Article 120, alias RKV-500, NATO's AS-15a), Kh-55-OK (article 124), Kh-55SM (Article 125, alias RKV-500B, NATO's AS-15B). Production of a stretched-range version, the "Kh-55SM", began in 1986. The improved Kh-55MS, AS-15B Kent reported NATO-codename, version was fielded in the 1990s. The Kh-55SM modification provided for increased range with the installation of expendable conformal external fuel tanks, giving it an estimated range of 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles).

The small, winged Kh-55 missile is powered by a turbofan jet engine that propels it at sustained subsonic speeds and can be launched from both high and low altitudes. After launch, the missile's folded wings, tail surfaces and engine inlet deploy. It is guided through a combination of an inertial guidance system plus a terrain contour-matching guidance system which uses radar and images stored in the memory of an onboard computer to find its target. This allows the missile to guide itself to the target with a high degree of accuracy, with a reported CEP of 15 m.

The Kh-55 has been in Russian service since 1984 as a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile. The missile carries a 200 kt nuclear warhead. The Kh-55 is the Soviet counterpart to American AGM-86 ALCM cruise missile. The Kh-55 cruise missiles are deployed with strategic bombers Tu-95 MS and Tu-160.

Each Tu-95MS bomber can carry up to six Kh-55 missiles, located on catapult type launching drum installation in the bomb compartment of the aircraft. In addition to the internal rotary launcher, the Bear can carry more Kh-55s externally, though in an overload flight condition. Two are carried on a stores attachment between the fuselage and inboard engine, and three are carried on a stores attachment between the two engines on each wing, for a total of ten missiles. In two loading compartments of supersonic Tu-160 can be located 12 long range cruise missiles (with the additional tanks) or 24 conventional cruise missiles.