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Kh-74M2 for PAK FA

The newest modification of an aviation missile for a Russian fifth generation fighter (PAK FA) will be created by 2016, said Boris Obnosov during the exhibition "Kadex-2014" in May 2014. "We have established very close contact with KB Sukhoi, a permanent joint working group has been created. All protocols of information interaction have been agreed, prototypes are made on time, we will meet the schedules - by 2016 everything must be done," Obnosov said, specifying that we are talking about the latest modification of the aircraft cruise missile - the Kh-74M2. "This is hard work, the intensity of testing is very high, sometimes even the Akhtuba Main Flight Test Center cannot cope," added the head of the corporation.

What is seen suspended on the PAK FA has a noticeably smaller dimension than the X-31 supersonic cruise missile (according to the classification of the US Defense Ministry and NATO - AS-17 Krypton), which also has a launch weight of 600 kg. What is this? Most likely the newest supersonic cruise missile Kh-74M2, which, due to its lower mass, is quite possibly capable of accelerating to speeds higher than that of the Kh-31 (Mach 3.1), namely, more than Mach 4. In turn, a missile that can fly faster than 4M (albeit in the final flight phase) can be classified as hypersonic. It is not for nothing that both news about the Kh-74M2 and the Russian military hypersonic missile came in a single package, although of course these are two completely different products.

For the development of the Russian hypersonic missile in Tactical Missile Weapons Corporation has been talked about for a long time, but the results, for obvious reasons, have not been announced. Even now, when it has been announced that the PAC FA will be armed with the latest high-speed missile, its TTX (tactical and technical characteristics) remain unknown to the general public. But this missile is just one of Russia's attempts to gain air superiority over NATO aviation.