Kh-22

The Kh-22 (russian: Х-22; AS-4 'Kitchen') is a large, long-range anti-ship missile developed by MKB Raduga in the Soviet Union. It was designed for use against aircraft carriers and carrier battle groups, with either a conventional or nuclear warhead. Kh-32 is the upgraded conventional/nuclear variant of Kh-22 and was accepted to service in 2016, it features an improved rocket motor and a new seeker head.

Development

After analyzing World War II naval battles and encounters in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Soviet military thinkers concluded that the era of large seaborne battles was over, and that stand-off attacks would be the way to neutralize and incapacitate large battle groups without having to field a similar force against them. Substituting cruise missiles for air attacks, Soviet Air Forces and Soviet Naval Aviation commanders set about to convert their heavy bombers to ''raketonosets'', or missile carriers, which could be launched against approaching enemy fleets from coastal or island airfields. The Kh-22 (Complex 22) weapon was developed by the Raduga design bureau and used to arm the Tupolev Tu-22M.

Design

The Kh-22 uses a Tumansky liquid-fuel rocket engine, fueled with TG-02 ( Tonka-250) and IRFNA (inhibited red fuming nitric acid), giving it a maximum speed of Mach 4.6 and a range of up to . It can be launched in either high-altitude or low-altitude mode. In high-altitude mode, it climbs to an altitude of and makes a high-speed dive into the target, with a terminal speed of about Mach 4.6. In low-altitude mode, it climbs to and makes a shallow dive at about Mach 3.5, The missile is guided by a gyroscope-stabilized autopilot in conjunction with a radio altimeter.

Soviet tests revealed that when a shaped charge warhead weighing was used in the missile, the resulting hole measured in diameter, in area, and was deep.Precision Guided Munitions in the Region
Technical Report APA-TR-2007-0109, 2004 - 2012 Carlo Kopp, ausairpower.net

By August 2016, Russia was finalizing the trials of the Kh-32 cruise missile, a derivative of the Kh-22. Designed for use by the Tu-22M3 bomber, the missile is designed to climb to to the stratosphere after launch, transition to level flight, then perform a steep dive to the target. The cruise missile version is also designed to target enemy ships, as well as radars, and "radio-contrast targets" like bridges, military bases, electric power plants, and others. The Kh-32 has an inertial navigation system and radar homing head, making it independent of GPS/GLONASS navigation satellites. Presumably, it has a range of and a speed of at least .Next Gen Kh-32 ant-ship cruise missile tests drawing to a close in Russia
- Navyrecognition.com, 24 August 2016 Apparently the missile entered service in the same year. Thirty-two Kh-22 missiles will be modernized to the Kh-32 level in 2018–2020.

Operational history

The first combat-ready missiles entered service in 1962.

The missiles were used by Soviet and then Russian Air Forces on the Тu-22K ('Blinder-B') and Tu-95К22 ('Bear-G') strategic bombers. Current main launch platform is the Tupolev Tu-22M3 ('Backfire') long-range strategic bomber.

The first combat use of the missile was reported during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 11 May 2022, a video emerged on internet showing a Russian Air Force Tu-22M3 strategic bomber launching a pair of two Kh-22 or Kh-32 missiles at targets somewhere in Ukraine.

UK MoD stated that Russia is possibly using anti-ship missiles, like the Kh-22, against ground targets. Such missiles “are highly inaccurate and therefore can cause severe collateral damage and casualties”.

On 9 May 2022, 13 Kh-22 missiles were reportedly fired by the Russian Air Force: seven at Fontanka, a coastal village about north of Odesa, where at least one smashed into the Riviera shopping mall around 10:35 PM (after curfew), killing one, and six at targets in the Donetsk Oblast.

Between 12 May and 25 June 2022, at least 10 other Russian Kh-22 strikes in Ukraine, involving at least 44 missiles in total, were reported in the media.

On 27 June 2022, two Kh-22 or Kh-32 missiles, launched by Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 bombers, were reportedly used in the Kremenchuk shopping mall attack, killing at least 21 people and injuring at least 59. One missile smashed directly into the mall while the other fell about 450 meters away, into the edge of the Kredmash Road Machinery Plant, which primarily manufactures asphalt and concrete mixers, where it injured two of the 100 employees present. Both missiles might have been aimed at the same target since such distance is within the limited accuracy of Kh-22 missiles (according to the international security analyst Sebastien Roblin, ″only half of the shots land within 600 meters of the aiming point″).

In the night between 30 June and 1 July 2022, three Kh-22 missiles were fired from Tu-22M3s into a 9-storey apartment building and a recreational center in Serhiivka, a Ukrainian settlement on the Black sea coast about south-west of Odessa. A whole section of the apartment building was destroyed. At least 21 people were killed in both strikes, including a 12 year-old boy, and more than 39 wounded, including six children. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said of the attack: "Today, the Russian army launched another brutal missile attack. A Russian missile was a supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, by the way. It hit an ordinary residential building in the Odesa region, in the village of Serhiivka. Such Kh-22 missiles were created to hit aircraft carriers and other large warships, but the Russian army used them against an ordinary nine-story building with ordinary civilians."

On 14 September 2022, it was reported at least seven Kh-22 missiles were launched at various hydraulic structures in Kryvyi Rih, including a nearby dam. This caused that the water level of the Inhulets river increased by , or even . Previously, the Inhulets became too shallow, allowing the Ukrainian army to build pontoon bridges during its southern counteroffensive. However, Ukrainian MoD claimed Kh-101 missiles were used during the missile strike.

Variants

Two initial versions were built, the Kh-22 with a large conventional warhead and the Kh-22N with a 350–1000-kiloton nuclear warhead. In the mid-1970s this was supplemented by the Kh-22P, an anti-radiation missile for the destruction of radar installations. In the 1970s the Kh-22 was upgraded to Kh-22M and Kh-22MA standard, with new attack profiles, somewhat longer range, and a datalink allowing mid-course updates.
* Kh-22M/MA — upgraded variants with Mach 3.3 speed and range. Weighs , contains of RDX.
* Kh-32 — a radically upgraded conventional/nuclear variant of Kh-22 with Mach 5 speed and range. It features an improved rocket motor and a new seeker head. Currently produced for the Tu-22M3 launch platform. Warhead weight has been reduced to to improve range.

Operators

;
* Russian Air Force

Former operators

;
;
* 423 scrapped after Ukrainian Tu-22M fleet's decommission.

Notes

References

*
*

External links

Х-22 БУРЯ



Navy Recognition


Navy Recognition

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017

Cold War anti-ship missiles of the Soviet Union
Nuclear air-to-surface missiles
Kh-022
Kh-022
Kh-022
Kh-022
MKB Raduga products
Military equipment introduced in the 1960s