SS-N-2 STYX

The SS-N-2 STYX is a ship launched medium-range anti-ship missile.

P-15 - antiship cruise missile of sea basing with the liquid propellant rocket engine and the powder starting (SPRD-E0), with the autonomous system for administration + OF TGSN or ARLGSN.

Glider - all-metal monocoque, midwing monoplane with wing and tail assembly of small lengthening. The wing spread in flight was for the first time designed and mastered by production.

Wing in two versions: riveted and cast (prepared with new progressive method - the method of the squeezing of thin-walled panels). Fairing from the radio-transparent fiberglass laminate ASTT and the polystyrene PS -1. Tank cut off welded construction, the made from the material D -20, insertable oxidant tank - from AMG-E. Basic materials used: D -16T, D -20, AMG-', Ei-'shchya, E0KHGSA, AMG-E.

By special novelty in the technology of production is wing rocket it appeared the method of the squeezing of thin-walled panels. Idea and primary developments of this method belong to E. To s. stebakov (NIAT), who, after becoming acquainted with the construction of article P -15, proposed to pour off wings by this method. With great difficulty the chief metallurgist of plant A. S. zvyagin E. S. stebakov they convinced chief engineer yu. i. shuksta of the expediency of preparing the cast wing instead of the riveted and in the need continuation of these experimental works. Very for long scrupulously was mastered the folding "book" - installation for the squeezing. With the introduction of this method there were many difficulties: first crack, then uzhimy, underfillings and the like for long searched for composition for working of the folds of "book" before the filling - they found. Castings began to be obtained, but with their heat working strongly it warped - was lost outline and basic dimensions. Large it is working it was worthwhile to develop the one-piece steel rigging, in which the cut castings loaded into the heat treating furnace. The castings, which do not require mechanical processing on the theoretical contour, began to be obtained after this, and articles became to complete wings in the cast version. This became possible because of the risk and daring decision of chief engineer shukst Yuri Ivanovich, who at the critical moment, even with the not worked out to the end version of casting, forbade to make wings P -15 in the riveted version. This accelerated the process of the mastery of cast version, although the situation with the planned deliveries was critical at that time. During the subsequent years the aircraft plant in g. to arsen'eve, where we communicated technical documentation on the series deliveries P -15, manufactured articles only with the cast wings. In

1960 the production of aggregates by the method of squeezing was exposed at VDNKH - EXHIBITION OF ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY OF THE USSR, where to the author- developers there was prisuzhdena silver medal, and to the executors of this method were entrusted prizes and rewards (V. d. chekushenkov, Yu. i. shukst, A. To s. zvyagin). It was rewarded with medal OF VDNKH - EXHIBITION OF ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY OF THE USSR and with A. 4. birch grove, which much made for the success of this work.

During the mid-1970s efficient infra-red seekers were developed and used in the P-22 missiles (SS-N-2d) supplementing the P-21 as the prime anti-ship weapon of the Project 1241 and Project 206 Missile Cutters ('Tarantul' class corvettes and 'Matka' class FACs which entered service in 1978. They were also used for coast defense purposes and received the NATO designation SSC-3 'Styx'.

It is the only ship-launched missile to have sunk large warships in action. On 21 October 1967 the Israeli destroyer Eilat was hit and sunk off Port Said by three missiles. Subsequently in the Holy Day War of 1973 the missile proved less effective with some 52 being fired without effect by Egyptian and Syrian naval units. One missile was destroyed in the air by a 76 mm gun.

The versions of the 'Styx' missile are as follows:

• P-15M Termit is an improved P-15 with folding wings and modified guidance system.
• P-20 Rubezh is a redesigned P-15 with improved range, due to the use of new fuels. There is also some improvement to the radar range and to its lock-on capability, while the autopilots are further modified. It is possible that the guidance system in this version received an Indian-developed jamming system as an ECCM measure.
• P-20M Rubezh is a P-20 with the MS-2A seeker. This has a solid-state radar with improved range, bearing accuracy, low-level detection capability and clutter suppression. The radar has six preset frequencies and several can be selected for use during the flight with the receiver opening for selected pulses. The radar has improved ECCM capabilities including the ability to home-on-jam.
• P-21 Rubezh is a P-15 with infra-red seeker.
• P-22 Rubezh is a P-20M with infra-red seeker. The infra-red seeker, whose sensor head projects from just below the nose, is used as a backup to the radar seeker if the latter is jammed. The sensor is reported to be extremely sensitive but no further details are available.
• P-27 Rubezh is a P-20M with L-band seeker. In larger ships such as the 'Tarantul' class corvettes the 'Square Tie' radar is replaced by one with the NATO designation 'Plank Shave'. This is another I-band system which is reported to have the Russian name Garpun.

The 'Styx' missiles have been subject to extensive in-service modification, indeed Indian sources would suggest that each of the former Soviet Navy fleets may have adapted their missiles to meet anticipated local tactical conditions. It is reported that MS-2A and IR. sensors have been retrofitted into earlier missiles together with ECCM hardware. Indian sources suggest that improvements in seeker technology developed by the Defense Research and Development Laboratories in Hyderabad and the Naval Chemical and Metallurgical Laboratories in Vishakhapatnam were adopted into the missiles of the Soviet Navy.

The P-15 is manufactured in China, North Korea and India. It would appear that production of' Styx' has ceased in Russia but it may continue in India, North Korea and possibly Egypt.

User countries include Algeria, Angola, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, India, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Poland, Romania, Russia, Syria, Vietnam, Yemen, and Yugoslavia.