Kh-23
Encyclopedia
NATO reporting name
NATO reporting names are classified code names for military equipment of the Eastern Bloc...
:AS-7 'Kerry') are a family of early Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
tactical air-to-surface missile
Air-to-surface missile
An air-to-surface missile is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft and strike ground targets on land, at sea, or both...
s with a range of 10 km. They were intended for use against small ground or naval targets. The Kh-66 was effectively a heavy-warhead, beam-riding version of the K-8 (AA-3 'Anab')
Kaliningrad K-8
The Kaliningrad K-8 was a medium-range air-to-air missile developed by the Soviet Union for interceptor aircraft use.Developed by OKB-339/NII-339...
air-to-air missile rushed into service in Vietnam in 1968. The Kh-23 was an improved Kh-66 with command-guidance, similar to the AGM-12 Bullpup
AGM-12 Bullpup
The AGM-12 Bullpup is an air-to-ground missile which was used on the A-4 Skyhawk, A-6 Intruder, F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom among others...
.
Development
Work on air-to-air missiles had started at the Kaliningrad Engineering Plant (then known as Plant #455, and later merged into Zvezda-Strela) in 1955. This had resulted in the Kaliningrad K-5Kaliningrad K-5
The Kaliningrad K-5 , also known as RS-1U or product ShM, was an early Soviet air-to-air missile.-History:...
(AA-1 'Alkali') family of beam-guided missiles, including the K-51 (RS-2-US) carried by the Su-9 'Fishpot'. OKB-4 Molniya (later Vympel NPO
Vympel NPO
Vympel NPO is a Russian research and production company based near Moscow, mostly known for their air-to-air missiles. Other projects include SAM and ABM defenses. It was started in the Soviet era as an OKB .-OKB-134 Toropov:...
) under Matus Bisnovat
Matus Bisnovat
Matus Ruvimovich Bisnovat , Soviet aircraft and missile designer.Bisnovat attended the Moscow Aviation Institute , graduating in 1931. In 1938, he headed a research team in Central Aero-Hydrodynamics Institute TsAGI, Zhukovsky, where several high-speed experimental airplanes were developed, the...
would go on to produce missiles such as the Bisnovat R-40
Bisnovat R-40
The Bisnovat R-40 was a long-range air-to-air missile developed in the 1960s by the Soviet Union specifically for the MiG-25 interceptor, but can also be carried by the later MiG-31...
(AA-6 'Acrid'). Meanwhile in 1963 the RS-2-US was tested as an air-to-surface missile. It was concluded that the small warhead and inaccurate guidance made such an application "pointless".
However, in 1965 North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
requested an air-to-surface missile from the Soviet government; the AGM-12 Bullpup
AGM-12 Bullpup
The AGM-12 Bullpup is an air-to-ground missile which was used on the A-4 Skyhawk, A-6 Intruder, F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom among others...
had entered service with the US Air Force before the start of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. In April 1965 OKB-134 (later NPO Vympel) started work on this missile under the project name Kh-23, but they had problems developing a guidance system that would work with existing aircraft. As a result Yurii N. Korolyov came up with his own proposals based on the earlier experiments with the RS-2-US. A design bureau to develop the RS-2-US for surface targets was set up under Korolyov by decree #100 of 12 March 1966 of the Ministry of the Aircraft Industry; this bureau would become the Zvezda OKB in 1976.
The resulting weapon used the body of a K-8 (AA-3 'Anab')
Kaliningrad K-8
The Kaliningrad K-8 was a medium-range air-to-air missile developed by the Soviet Union for interceptor aircraft use.Developed by OKB-339/NII-339...
K-5 guidance and propulsion systems but increased the warhead from 13 kg (28.7 lb) to 100 kg (220 lb). This had the big advantage of allowing the new weapon to be fitted to any aircraft capable of firing the K-5. Design began in 1966, so the project was known as Kh-66 or Izdeliye 66 ('Article 66'). The Kh-66 was a beam-riding weapon that was tested on a MiG-21PFM
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was popularly nicknamed "balalaika", from the aircraft's planform-view resemblance to the Russian stringed musical instrument or ołówek by Polish pilots due to...
and entered production in 1968 for that aircraft. The Kh-66 was only an interim solution as it required the launch aircraft to dive towards the target to maintain lock on the target. Flight testing of the Kh-66 began in 1967 and it entered service on 20 June 1968.
Meanwhile Korolyov took over work on the Kh-23 project intended for carriage on the Soviet Union's new Mig-23. The Kh-23 became a development of the Kh-66 design with an improved propellant and new Delta-R1M guidance system. The main practical difference was that it was a line-of-sight radio-command weapon similar to the Bullpup, allowing it to be fired in level flight (unlike the Kh-66). The first ten were tested in early 1968, but significant delays were caused by problems with unreliable guidance which was eventually traced to the smoke generator which interfered with the antenna. Once the receiver had been moved to a tail extension, the government tested the missile on the MiG-23 and MiG-23B between 20 March 1970 and 3 October 1973. and it entered service in 1973. A laser-guided version of the Kh-23, the Kh-25, became the basis for the AS-10 'Karen' family of missiles. Technology from these was 'backported' to the Kh-23 to create the Kh-23M in 1974.
The Kh-23 was later licenced for local production in both Romania and Yugoslavia. In 1977 a dummy Kh-23 was fired from a Ka-252TB helicopter, the prototype of the Kamov Ka-29TB 'Helix-B' assault transport.
Design
The Kh-66 used the airframe of the Kaliningrad K-8Kaliningrad K-8
The Kaliningrad K-8 was a medium-range air-to-air missile developed by the Soviet Union for interceptor aircraft use.Developed by OKB-339/NII-339...
(AA-3 'Anab') air-to-air missile, with the nozzle split to make room for the antenna of the beam-riding guidance system of the Kaliningrad K-5
Kaliningrad K-5
The Kaliningrad K-5 , also known as RS-1U or product ShM, was an early Soviet air-to-air missile.-History:...
(AA-1 'Alkali'). It has cruciform control fins on the nose, and four clipped-tip delta-wings at the rear with elevators for control.
Operational history
The Kh-66 entered production for the MiG-21 in 1968, and the Kh-23 was certified for the MiG-23 'Flogger' in 1973.Variants
- Kh-66 - the original beam-riding missile based on the K-8
- Kh-23 (Izdeliye 68) - First command-guidance version with improved propellant
- Kh-23M - improved Kh-23 with technology from the Kh-25 family
- Kh-23L - Western name for a laser-guided version that in fact was the baseline Kh-25Kh-25The Kh-25/Kh-25M is a family of Soviet lightweight air-to-ground missiles with a modular range of guidance systems and a range of 10 km. The anti-radar variant is known to NATO as the AS-12 'Kegler and has a range up to 40 km. Designed by Zvezda-Strela, the Kh-25 is derived from the...
(AS-10 'Karen') - A921 - Version made in Romania under licence
- Grom (Grom 02) - Serbian version that appeared in the 1980s. This should not be confused with the Polish SAMGrom (missile)The Grom is a man-portable air-defense system produced in Poland. It consists of a 72 mm anti-aircraft missile set with a flight speed of 650 m/s, as well as a single-use launcher, re-usable gripstock and thermal battery coolant assembly electric unit...
- Grom-B (Grom 2) - TV-guided version from Serbia's Vojno-Tehnički Institut in the mid-late 1990s; uses seeker based on that of AGM-65B MaverickAGM-65 MaverickThe AGM-65 Maverick is an air-to-ground tactical missile designed for close-air support. It is effective against a wide range of tactical targets, including armor, air defenses, ships, ground transportation and fuel storage facilities....
Operators
- passed onto successor states - as of SaddamSaddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's Era (A921) (Grom)
Similar weapons
- AGM-12 BullpupAGM-12 BullpupThe AGM-12 Bullpup is an air-to-ground missile which was used on the A-4 Skyhawk, A-6 Intruder, F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom among others...
- AS-20AS-20The AS-20 was a French air-to-surface missile developed during the late 1950s. It was similar to the U.S. AGM-12 Bullpup missile.-Development:...
- French air-to-ground missile based on an early air-to-air missile