Kh-22

The Raduga Kh-22 (Х-22; AS-4 'Kitchen') is a large, long-range anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union. It was intended for use against US Navy aircraft carriers and carrier battle groups, with either a conventional or nuclear warhead.

Development
After analyzing World War II naval battles and encounters in the late 40s and early 50s, Soviet military thinkers assessed that the times of large seaborne battles were over, and that stand-off attacks were the way to neutralize and incapacitate large battle groups without having to field a similar force against them. Substituting cruise missiles for air attacks, VVS and AV-MF commanders set about to convert their heavy bombers to raketonosets, or missile carriers, which could be launched against approaching enemy fleets and task forces 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-22.

Design
The Kh-22 uses an Isayev liquid-fuel rocket engine, fueled with hydrazine and IRFNA (inhibited red fuming nitric acid), giving it a maximum speed of Mach 4.6 and a range of up to 600 km. It can be launched in either high-altitude or low-altitude mode. In high-altitude mode, it climbs to an altitude of 27000 m 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 12000 m and makes a shallow dive at about Mach 3.5, making the final approach at an altitude under 500 m. The missile is guided by a gyro-stabilized autopilot in conjunction with a radio altimeter.

Soviet tests revealed that when a shaped charge warhead weighing 1000 kg was used in the missile, the resulting hole measured 5 m in diameter, and was 12 m deep.

Operational history
The first service-ready missiles were ready in 1962.

The main launch platform is the Tu-22M 'Backfire'. Russia has also used it on the Тu-22К 'Blinder-B' and Tupolev Tu-95К22 'Bear-G'.

Variants
Two initial versions were built, the Kh-22A with a large conventional warhead and the Kh-22N, with a 350-1000-kiloton nuclear warhead. In the mid-1960s 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-22E - a conventionally armed version for export


 * Kh-32 - a conventionally armed deep upgrade variant of Kh-22 for modernised Tu-22M3


 * Kh-22M/MA - new variants with almost 600 km range. Weight ~12 000 lbs, speed ~mach 5, contain 1000 kg of RDX

The principal weapon of modernised Tu-22M3 will be the Kh-32 supersonic air-to-surface missile developed by NPO Raduga as an upgrade of the familiar Kh-22. It features an improved rocket motor and a new seeker head.

Current Operators

 * Russian Air Force
 * Russian Air Force

Former Operators

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