Russia’s ‘aircraft carrier killer’ missile model poses a challenge to Ukraine

On February 3, the Ukrainian Air Force announced that Russia had launched 71 missiles and 450 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) against the country’s territory, including 7 Kh-22/Kh-32 supersonic anti-ship missiles. Ukraine’s air defense force announced that it had intercepted three Kh-22/Kh-32 missiles, along with 35 missiles and 412 UAVs.

The Ukrainian Air Force previously said that Russia launched 12 Kh-22 missiles at the capital Kiev in a coordinated raid on the night of January 23 and early morning of January 24, confirming that 9 of these missiles were shot down.

This is the first time the Russian military has fired Kh-22/Kh-32 missiles at Kiev since the beginning of the conflict. Moscow’s previous use of this type of weapon was relatively limited and often targeted areas near the front lines, but each deployment caused great damage.

Ukrainian media said that Russia is mobilizing all available weapons, including rarely used missiles like the Kh-22/Kh-32, to increase the scale of the raid and achieve the goal of destroying the enemy’s energy infrastructure.

Kh-22 is a large anti-ship cruise missile, developed by the Raduga Design Bureau and put into service with the Soviet military since 1968, to deal with US aircraft carriers and escort warships. Each shell has a range of 600 km, a maximum speed of 5,600 km/h and carries a high-explosive warhead weighing one ton or a nuclear warhead with a destructive power of 350-1,000 kilotons.

The deeply upgraded version of the Kh-32 was developed in the 1980s, but the project was suspended due to lack of funding after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The program was resumed in the mid-1990s, with initial testing completed in 1998. However, the project continued to stagnate because Russia lacked the resources to modernize the launch vehicle.

Tests were restarted in 2008, after the Tu-22M3 strategic bomber was converted to serve the project. The Kh-32 missile was first launched in 2016, when the Russian Strategic Air Force announced it would begin commissioning this weapon.

Known as “aircraft carrier killers”, the Kh-22 and Kh-32 have a similar appearance, both use an inertial navigation system to move to a predetermined area, then activate an active radar detector to lock on the target. The two missiles also have similar flight trajectories and speeds.

The biggest difference is that the Kh-22’s radar probe operates at a fixed frequency and is susceptible to jamming, while the Kh-32 has an upgraded inertial navigation system and uses a multi-frequency probe that is highly resistant to jamming. The Kh-32 missile also has its engine upgraded and warhead miniaturized to increase its range to 1,000 km. The flight ceiling of the Kh-32 has also been raised to 40 km compared to 27 km of the Kh-22 line.

Russian media describes the Kh-32 as an “extremely effective new generation weapon”, capable of attacking both sea and ground targets.

The main disadvantage of the Kh-32 is that it can only be launched from the Tu-22M3M bomber, a fully modernized version of the Tu-22M3 series. It is unclear how many Tu-22M3Ms Moscow owns, but open source data shows that there were only 4 in service with the Russian strategic air force before the Ukraine conflict broke out.

This allows the Russian military to fire up to 12 Kh-32 missiles in each coordinated raid. The number can increase if the older version of the Kh-22 is mobilized, in return the range and accuracy of the attack will be significantly reduced.

Although deployed in small numbers and with relatively low frequency, the Kh-22/Kh-32 hypersonic missiles are still a significant challenge for Ukraine’s air defense systems.

The Conflict Intelligence Group (CIT) specializes in military analysis, based in Georgia, noting that the Kh-22/32 is a cruise missile but has a trajectory and speed close to that of a ballistic missile, which is a very difficult target to intercept even with modern Western defense systems.

“This is a very difficult weapon to deal with. It climbs to a high altitude after launch and crashes into the target with a very steep angle, almost a dive, and very high speed,” said Douglas Barrie, a military aerospace expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) based in the UK.

In return, such a flight trajectory can reduce the missile’s accuracy. “Descent at high speed and at a very steep angle increases the risk of missing the target,” Barrie said.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly admitted that intercepting Kh-22/Kh-32 missiles is a task beyond the capabilities of most air defense complexes in the country.

According to expert Barrie, Ukraine has very few options to deal with the Kh-22/32 missile. “The Patriot complex, and possibly the European-made SAMP/T system, are real shields that have a chance to intercept this type of missile,” he said.

Colonel Yuri Ignat, head of the communications department of the Ukrainian air force, admitted that before the raid on the night of January 23 and early morning of January 24, the country’s air defense units only shot down 3 out of 412 Kh-22/Kh-32 missiles fired by Russia.

It is unclear why Ukraine announced that it had taken down 9 of the 12 Kh-22 missiles that Russia launched at Kiev in the raid on the night of January 23 and morning of January 24, even though it was almost powerless before. Experts say that this is the first time Russia has launched Kh-22/Kh-32 missiles into Kiev, where Ukraine’s best air defense systems are concentrated and are guaranteed a more abundant missile source than the front line area.

“Despite its shortcomings, the Kh-22/32 missile is still a serious threat, especially in areas not protected by modern air defense systems,” editor Polina Moroziuk of the newspaper said. Kyiv Independent comment.