Head of Russian Missile Corporation Outlines Plans 2007-01-16
Text of report by Russian
news agency Interfax-AVN website
Moscow, 16 January: The director-general of the Takticheskoye Raketnoye Vooruzheniye [Tactical Missile Armaments] corporation, Boris Obnosov, has stated that its enterprises will continue work to create promising models of weapons, including those for the fifth- generation aircraft, as well as modernize earlier creations.
"We are working hard to create new promising models of weapons and this work has to do not only with the creation of the fifth- generation aircraft; we are in principle doing all we can to be at the right time, in the right place with the right products," Obnosov said in an interview that was published in the January issue of the Pryamyye Investitsii [Direct Investment] magazine.
According to Obnosov, the corporation is coordinating its plans with the main developer of the fifth-generation aircraft, the Sukhoi company. "The new carrier will be needed only if there are new weapons. With old weapons, it is of little interest both abroad and in Russia," Obnosov said.
Obnosov said that at the same time great share of work carried out at the corporation's enterprises has to do with the modernization of missiles developed in the 1970s-1980s.
"We have completed new modernization, the so-called 'drop' [Russ: kaplya] with non-contact detonation above the target. This means that a missile in flight detects the target and destroys it exploding at an altitude of 9-12 metres," Obnosov said.
According to Obnosov, apart from that in the course of modernization it has been possible to increased the flight range of the missile in its anti-ship version, replace its hardware components [Russ: elementnaya baza] with new ones.
"Kh-31P and Kh-31PK missiles are among the few ones which can win a duel with the Patriot antimissile system. The USA has repeatedly wanted to buy it," Obnosov said.
He said that "the probability of hitting targets with the first shot" is the main criterion when developing new missile armaments.
"Our armaments include supersonic missiles and also subsonic missiles, but because of their low flight trajectory, only 203 m above the sea level, they are also difficult to detect and intercept," Obnosov said.
(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Dr Carlo Kopp, MIEEE, SMAIAA, PEng
Defence Analyst and Consulting Engineer
Editor: Air Power Australia @ http://www.ausairpower.net
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