The MA-31 was a conversion of the

Kh-31 The Kh-31 (russian: Kha (Cyrillic), Х-31; AS-17 'Krypton') is a Russian air-to-surface missile carried by aircraft such as the MiG-29 or Su-27. It is capable of Mach number, Mach 3.5 and was the first supersonic anti-ship missile that could be la ...

anti-ship missile, developed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

during the 1980s, for use as a

target drone A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews. One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operationa ...

by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Although the missile proved successful in this role, political complications resulted in the type being only an interim solution, and only a small number of the missiles were acquired.

Kh-31 development

The Kh-31 missile was developed by

Zvezda-Strela , type = Joint-stock company , location = , industry = Defense industry Aerospace industrySpace industry , founded = , founder = , hq_location_city = Korolyov, Moscow Oblast , hq_location_country = Russia , area_served = worldwide , key_pe ...

in the Soviet Union starting in 1977 for service as a long-range

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A good ...

and

anti-radiation missile An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be t ...

, first being flown in 1982.Friedman 2006, pp.534 Derived from the

P-270 Moskit The P-270 Moskit (russian: П-270 «Москит»; en, Mosquito) is a Soviet supersonic ramjet powered anti-ship cruise missile. Its GRAU designation is 3M80, air launched variant is the Kh-41 and its NATO reporting name is SS-N-22 Sunburn (one ...

missile, the Kh-31 is conventional in shape, and has cruciform fins made from titanium, with a

rocket-ramjet A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an ass ...

propulsion system providing thrust.

MA-31 history

Following the cancellation of the

AQM-127 SLAT The AQM-127 Supersonic Low-Altitude Target (SLAT) was a target drone developed during the 1980s by Martin Marietta for use by the United States Navy. Derived from Martin Marietta's work on the cancelled ASALM missile, SLAT proved to have severe d ...

target drone program, a requirement for a new high-speed target to replace the

MQM-8 Vandal Bendix RIM-8 Talos was a long-range naval surface-to-air missile, and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. The Talos used radar beam riding for guidance to the vicinity of its target, and semiactive ...

still existed.Parsch and Caston 2006 In an unusual turn of events, the U.S. Navy chose to acquire examples of the

missile - the actual threat the drone was intended to simulate - as an interim solution pending the development of an all-new design. In 1995, a contract was awarded to

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produ ...

for evaluation of the Kh-31 in the Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target role. An initial small batch of missiles were acquired, being delivered from the manufacturer as "green" shells, without electronics, to

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

, which had acquired McDonnell Douglas, in the US for modification and conversion to U.S. Navy standards, including the installation of tracking, telemetry and range-safety systems.Parsch 2008 The MA-31 was equipped for launch from the QF-4 Phantom II aircraft, and it was proposed to develop a compatible launcher for the F-16N Fighting Falcon.Braucksick 2004 Designated MA-31 in US service, the first launch of the missile took place in August 1996. Evaluated against an improved MQM-8, the MA-31 proved superior and a contract for 34 production missiles was placed in 1999. At this point, politics intervened in the process, with the

Russian Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...

refusing export clearance for the missiles. Boeing proposed a further modified version of the missile, with improved GPS-based navigation and guidance system and longer range, however the MA-31 program went no further, and the last missiles in the U.S. Navy's inventory were expended in 2007.Buckley 2007 The Navy would finally receive a definitive Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target, replacing the MA-31 and the MQM-8, in the form of the

GQM-163 Coyote The GQM-163 Coyote is a supersonic sea skimming target built by Northrop Grumman (formerly Orbital ATK) and used by the United States Navy as a successor to the MQM-8 Vandal. Orbital's proposal was chosen over the MA-31, a joint venture between ...

, which entered service during 2007.Parsch 2007

Design

It was powered by an integrated

solid-fueled rocket A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants ( fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Arabs, Chinese, Persian ...

ramjet A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an ass ...

propulsion system. After burnout of the rocket, the covers on the four ramjet intakes were jettisoned, and the empty rocket case served as the ramjet's combustion chamber. The missile could reach speeds of at high-altitude and at sea level.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* . Sales pitch from Boeing, has useful diagrams of flight profiles etc * * * * * * *

External links

Link
for further info {{US missiles Target drones of the United States Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States Anti-ship missiles of Russia Anti-ship missiles of the United States Guided missiles of the United States Navy Cold War anti-ship missiles of the Soviet Union Tactical Missiles Corporation products Russia–United States military relations Military equipment introduced in the 1990s