Emerged (more precisely, revived) in the late 1970s. in the USSR and the USA, as an independent class of strategic offensive weapons, long-range aircraft and sea cruise missiles (CR) have been considered since the second half of the 1980s as high-precision weapons (WTO) designed to engage especially important small targets with conventional (non-nuclear) warheads … Equipped with high-power (weight - about 450 kg) non-nuclear warheads (warheads), the AGM-86C (CALCM) and AGM-109C Tomahawk cruise missiles have demonstrated high efficiency in hostilities against Iraq (permanently conducted since 1991), as well as in the Balkans (1999) and in other parts of the world. At the same time, tactical (non-nuclear) missile launchers of the first generation had a relatively low flexibility of combat use - the input of the flight mission into the missile guidance system was carried out on the ground, before the bomber took off or the ship left the base, and took more than a day (later it was reduced to several hours).
In addition, the CDs had a relatively high cost (more than $ 1 million), low hitting accuracy (circular probable deviation - KVO - from tens to hundreds of meters) and several times less than that of their strategic prototypes, the range of combat use (respectively, 900-1100 and 2400-3000 km), which was due to the use of a heavier non-nuclear warhead, "displacing" part of the fuel from the rocket body. The carriers of the AGM-86C CR (launch weight 1460 kg, warhead weight 450 kg, range 900-1100 km) are currently only strategic bombers-missile carriers B-52H, and AGM-109C are equipped with surface ships of the class "destroyer" and "cruiser "equipped with universal vertical container launchers, as well as multipurpose nuclear submarines (NPS), using missiles from a submerged position.
Based on the experience of military operations in Iraq (1991), the American missile defense systems of both types were modernized in the direction of increasing the flexibility of their combat use (now the flight mission can be entered remotely, directly on board an aircraft or carrier ship, in the process of solving a combat mission) … Due to the introduction of an optical correlation system of final homing, as well as equipping with a satellite navigation unit (GPS), the accuracy characteristics of the weapon (KVO -8-10 m) have significantly increased, which ensured the possibility of hitting not just a specific target, but its specific area.
In the 1970s-1990s, up to 3400 AGM-109 missiles and more than 1700 AGM-86 missiles were produced. At present, the AGM-109 KR of early modifications (both "strategic" and anti-ship) are being massively refined into a tactical version of the AGM-109C Block 111C, equipped with an improved guidance system and having an increased combat range from 1100 to 1800 km, as well as reduced KVO (8-10 m). At the same time, the mass (1450 kg) of the rocket and its speed characteristics (M = 0, 7) remained practically unchanged.
Since the end of the 1990s, work has been carried out in parallel to create a simplified, cheaper version of the Tektikal Tomahawk missile launcher, intended exclusively for use from board surface ships. This made it possible to reduce the requirements for the strength of the airframe, to abandon a number of other elements that ensure the launch of the missile in a submerged position from the torpedo tubes of nuclear submarines, and thereby improve the weight return of the aircraft and increase its performance characteristics (first of all, the range, which should increase to 2000 km).
In the longer term, due to a decrease in the mass of avionics and the use of more economical engines, the maximum range of the upgraded missile launchers of the AGM-86C and AGM-109C types will increase to 2000-3000 km (while maintaining the same efficiency of the non-nuclear warhead).
cruise missile AGM-86B
However, the process of transformation of the AGM-86 aviation missile launchers into a non-nuclear version in the early 2000s slowed down significantly due to the lack of "extra" missiles of this type in the US Air Force (in contrast to the Tomahawk missile launcher in the nuclear version, which, in accordance with the Russian-American agreements, removed from the ships' ammunition and transferred to coastal storage, AGM-86 continues to be included in the nuclear category, being the basis of the strategic armament of the US Air Force B-52 bombers). For the same reason, the transformation into a non-nuclear version of the AGM-129A strategic unobtrusive KR, which is also equipped exclusively with B-52H aircraft, did not begin. In this regard, the question of resuming serial production of an improved version of the AGM-86 KR was repeatedly raised, but a decision on this was never made.
For the foreseeable future, the Lockheed Martin AGM-158 JASSM subsonic missile (M = 0.7) is considered as the main tactical CD of the US Air Force, flight tests of which began in 1999. The missile has dimensions and weight (1100 kg), approximately corresponding to AGM- 86, is capable of hitting targets with high accuracy (KVO - several meters) at a distance of up to 350 km. Unlike AGM-86, it is equipped with a more powerful warhead and has less radar signature.
Another important advantage of the AGM-158 is its versatility in carriers: it can be equipped with almost all types of combat aircraft of the Air Force, Navy and the US Marine Corps (B-52H, B-1B, B-2A, F-15E, F-16C, F / A-18, F-35).
KR JASSM is equipped with a combined autonomous guidance system - inertial-satellite on the cruising phase of flight and thermal imaging (with target self-recognition mode) on the final one. It can be assumed that a number of improvements introduced (or planned for implementation) on the AGM-86C and AGM-109C CDs will also find application on the rocket, in particular, the transfer of a "receipt" to the ground command post about the defeat of the target and the retargeting mode in flight.
The first small-scale batch of the JASSM missile system includes 95 missiles (its production began in mid-2000), the next two batches will amount to 100 items each (deliveries began in 2002). The maximum rate of release will reach 360 missiles per year. Serial production of cruise missiles is supposed to continue at least until 2010. Within seven years, it is planned to produce at least 2,400 cruise missiles at a unit cost of each product of at least 0.3 million dollars.
The Lockheed Martin company, together with the Air Force, are considering the possibility of creating a variant of the JASSM rocket with an elongated body and a more economical engine, which will increase the range to 2,800 km.
At the same time, the US Navy, in parallel with a rather "formal" participation in the JASSM program, in the 1990s continued work to further improve the tactical aviation CD AGM-84E SLAM, which, in turn, is a modification of the Boeing Harpoon AGM anti-ship missile -84, created in the 1970s. In 1999, the US Navy's carrier-based aircraft entered service with the Boeing AGM-84H SLAM-ER tactical cruise missile with a range of about 280 km - the first American weapon system with the ability to automatically recognize targets (ATR -Automatic Target Recognition mode). Giving the SLAM-ER guidance system the ability to autonomously identify targets is a major step in improving the WTO. In comparison with the automatic target acquisition mode (ATA - Automatic Target Acquisition), already implemented in a number of aviation weapons, in the ATR mode the "picture" of a potential target received by onboard sensors is compared with its digital image stored in the on-board computer memory, which allows autonomous search for the target of impact, its identification and targeting of the missile with only approximate data on the location of the target.
The SLAM-ER missile is used for carrier-based multipurpose fighters F / A-18B / C, F / A-18E / F, and in the future - and F-35A. SLAM-ER is an "intra-American" competitor of the KR JASSM (purchases of the latter by the US fleet are still problematic).
Thus, until the beginning of the 2010s, in the arsenal of the US Air Force and Navy, in the class of non-nuclear cruise missiles with a range of 300-3000 km, there will be only low-altitude subsonic (M = 0, 7-0, 8) cruise missiles with cruise turbojet engines, which have small and ultra-low radar signature (RCS = 0, 1-0, 01 sq. m) and high accuracy (CEP - less than 10 m).
In the longer term (2010-2030) in the United States, it is planned to create a long-range missile launcher of a new generation, designed to fly at high supersonic and hypersonic (M = 4 or more) speeds, which should significantly reduce the reaction time of the weapon, as well as, in combination with low radar signature, the degree of its vulnerability from existing and prospective enemy missile defense systems.
The US Navy is considering the development of a high-speed universal cruise missile JSCM (Joint Supersonic Cruise Missile), designed to combat advanced air defense systems. The CD should have a range of about 900 km and a maximum speed corresponding to M = 4, 5-5, 0. It is assumed that it will carry a unitary armor-piercing unit or cluster warhead equipped with several submunitions. The deployment of KPJSMC, according to the most optimistic forecasts, can begin in 2012. The cost of the rocket development program is estimated at $ 1 billion.
It is assumed that the JSMC CD can be launched from surface ships equipped with universal vertical launchers Mk 41. In addition, it can be carried by multi-purpose carrier-based fighters such as F / A-18E / F and F-35A / B (in the aviation version, the missile is considered as replacement of the subsonic CR SLAM-ER). It is planned that the first decisions on the JSCM program will be made in 2003, and in the 2006-2007 financial year, full-scale financing of the work may begin.
According to the director of naval programs at Lockheed Martin E. Carney (AI Carney), although state funding for the JSCM program has not yet been carried out, in 2002 it is planned to finance work under the ACTD (Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator) research program. In the event that the groundwork for the ACTD program will form the basis of the concept of the JSMC rocket, Lockheed Martin is likely to become the main executor of work on the creation of a new CD.
The development of the experimental ACTD rocket is being carried out jointly by Orbital Science and the US Navy's Naval Armaments Center (China Lake AFB, California). The rocket is supposed to be equipped with a liquid-propellant air-ramjet engine, research on which has been carried out in China Lake for the last 10 years.
The main "sponsor" of the JSMC program is the US Pacific Fleet, which is primarily interested in effective means of combating the rapidly improving Chinese air defense systems.
In the 1990s, the US Navy embarked on a program to create a promising ALAM missile weapon designed for use by surface ships against coastal targets. A further development of this program in 2002 was the FLAM (Future Land Attack Missile) complex project, which should fill the range between the corrected active-rocket artillery 155-mm guided projectile ERGM (capable of hitting targets with high accuracy at a distance of more than 100 km) and the Tomahawk missile launcher. The missile should have increased accuracy. Funding for its creation will begin in 2004. It is planned that the new generation DD (X) destroyers will be equipped with the FLAM missile, which will begin to enter service in 2010.
The final shape of the FLAM rocket has not yet been determined. According to one of the options, it is possible to create a hypersonic aircraft with a liquid-propellant ramjet engine based on the JSCM rocket.
The Lockheed Martin company, together with the French center ONR, is working on the creation of a solid-fuel jet engine SERJ (Solid-Fuelled RamJet), which can also be used on the ALAM / FLAM rocket (although it seems more likely to install such an engine on later missiles, which may appear after 2012, or on the CR ALAM / FLAM in the process of its modernization), since the ramjet is less economical than the turbojet engine, a supersonic (hypersonic) rocket with a SERJ engine,according to estimates, it will have a shorter (about 500 km) range than subsonic missile launchers of similar mass and dimensions.
Boeing, together with the US Air Force, is considering the concept of a hypersonic CR with a lattice wing, designed to deliver two to four subminiature autonomous subsonic CRs of the LOCAADS type to the target area. The main task of the system should be to defeat modern mobile ballistic missiles with a pre-launch preparation time (the beginning of which can be detected by means of reconnaissance after lifting the missile to a vertical position) of about 10 minutes. Based on this, a hypersonic cruise missile should reach the target area within 6-7 minutes. after receiving target designation. No more than 3 minutes can be allotted for searching and hitting a target with submunitions (mini-CR LOCAADS or gliding ammunition of the BAT type).
As part of this program, the possibility of creating a demonstration hypersonic missile ARRMD (Advanced Rapid Response Missile Demonstrator) is being investigated. UR must cruise at a speed corresponding to M = 6. At M = 4, submunitions should be ejected. The ARRMD hypersonic missile with a launch weight of 1045 kg and a maximum range of 1200 km will carry a payload of 114 kg.
In the 1990s. work on the creation of operational-tactical missiles (with a range of about 250-350 km) was also launched in Western Europe. France and Great Britain, on the basis of the French tactical missile Apache with a range of 140 km, designed to destroy railway rolling stock (this missile entered service with the French Air Force in 2001), created a family of cruise missiles with a range of about 250-300 km SCALP-EG / "" CTOpM Shadow "designed to equip attack aircraft" Mirage "20000," Mirage "2000-5," Harier GR.7 and "Tornado" GR.4 (and in the future - "Rafale" and EF2000 "Lancer") … The features of missiles equipped with a turbojet engine and retractable aerodynamic surfaces include subsonic (M = 0.8) speed, low-altitude flight profile and low radar signature (achieved, in particular, by the ribbing of the glider surfaces).
The rocket flies along a pre-selected "corridor" in the mode of following the terrain. It has high maneuverability, which makes it possible to implement a number of programmed evasion maneuvers from air defense fire. There is a GPS receiver (American system NAVSTAR). In the final section, a combined (thermal / microwave) homing system with a self-target recognition mode should be used. Before approaching the target, the rocket performs a slide, followed by a dive at the target. In this case, the dive angle can be set depending on the characteristics of the target. The BROACH tandem warhead on approach "shoots" a head submunition at the target, which punches a hole in the protective structure, into which the main ammunition flies in, exploding inside the object with some deceleration (the degree of deceleration is set depending on the specific characteristics of the target assigned to defeat).
It is assumed that the Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG missiles will enter service with the aviation of Great Britain, France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates. According to estimates, the cost of one serial CR (with a total volume of orders of 2,000 missiles) will be approximately $ 1.4 million. (however, the volume of an order of 2,000 KR seems to be very optimistic, so one can expect that the real cost of one missile will be much higher).
In the future, on the basis of the Storm Shadow missile, it is planned to create a reduced export version of the Black Shahin, which will be able to equip the Mirage 2000-5 / 9 aircraft.
The international French-English concern MBD (Matra / VAe Dynamics) is studying new modifications of the Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG missile. One of the promising options is an all-weather and all-day ship-based missile defense system, designed to destroy coastal targets. According to the developers' estimates, the new European missile with a range of more than 400 km can be considered as an alternative to the American Tomahawk naval missile system equipped with a non-nuclear warhead, compared with which it will have higher accuracy.
The RC should be equipped with an inertial-satellite guidance system with an extreme correlational ground correction system (TERPROM). In the final phase of the flight, it is planned to use an autonomous homing thermal imaging system to a contrast target. For the guidance of the CD, the European space navigation system GNSS will be used, which is under development and in its characteristics is close to the American system NAVSTAR and the Russian GLONASS.
The EADS concern is working on the creation of another subsonic aviation missile KEPD 350 "Taurus" with a launch weight of 1400 kg, very close to the SCALP-EG / "Storm Shadow" missile. The missile with a maximum combat range of about 300-350 km is designed for flight at low altitude with a speed corresponding to M = 0, 8. It should enter service with the German Tornado fighter-bombers after 2002. In the future, it is planned to equip the EF2000 Typhoon aircraft with it. In addition, it is planned to supply the new CD for export, where it will seriously compete with the French-British tactical cruise missile Matra / VAe Dynamix "Storm Shadow" and, probably, the American AGM-158.
On the basis of the KEPD 350 missile, a KEPD 150SL anti-ship missile project with a range of 270 km is being developed to replace the Harpoon missile. Anti-ship missiles of this type are supposed to equip promising German frigates and destroyers. The rocket should be placed in deck containers of rectangular cross-section, grouped into four-container blocks.
The airborne KEPD 150 variant (with a launch weight of 1060 kg and a range of 150 km) was chosen by the Swedish Air Force to equip the JAS39 Gripen multirole fighter. In addition, this SD is offered by the Air Forces of Australia, Spain and Italy.
Thus, European cruise missiles in terms of speed characteristics (M = 0.8) approximately correspond to American counterparts, they also fly along a low-altitude profile and have a range that is significantly less than the range of tactical variants of the AGM-86 and AGM-109 cruise missiles and is approximately equal to the AGM range. -158 (JASSM). Just like the American cruise missiles, they have low (RCS of the order of 0.1 sq. M.) Radar signature and high accuracy.
The scale of production of European CDs is much smaller than that of American ones (the volumes of their purchases are estimated at several hundred units). At the same time, the cost characteristics of American and European subsonic cruise missiles are approximately comparable.
It can be expected that until the beginning of the 2010s, the Western European aviation missile industry in the class of tactical (non-nuclear) missile launchers will only produce products of the SCALP / Storm Shadow and KEPD 350 type, as well as their modifications. With the expectation of a more distant prospect (2010s and later) in Western Europe (primarily in France), as well as in the United States, research is being conducted in the field of long-range hypersonic strike missiles. During 2002-2003, flight tests of a new experimental hypersonic cruise missile with a Vestra ramjet engine, which is being created by EADS and the French arms agency DGA, are to begin.
The implementation of the Vestra program was launched by the DGA agency in September 1996, with the goal of "helping to define the shape of a multipurpose long-range high-altitude (combat) missile." The program made it possible to work out aerodynamics, power plant and elements of the control system of a promising missile launching vehicle. The studies carried out by DGA specialists made it possible to conclude that a promising high-speed rocket should perform the final stage of flight at low altitude (initially it was assumed that the entire flight would take place only at high altitude).
On the basis of the KR "Vestra" a combat hypersonic missile FASMP-A with an air launch should be created, designed to replace the KPASMP. Its entry into service is expected at the end of 2006. The carriers of the FASMP-A missile, equipped with a thermonuclear warhead, should be Dassault Mirage N fighter-bombers and Rafale multifunctional fighters. In addition to the strategic version of the CD, it is possible to create an anti-ship version with a conventional warhead and a final homing system.
France is currently the only foreign country armed with a long-range cruise missile with a nuclear warhead. Back in the 1970s, work began on the creation of a new generation of aviation nuclear weapons - the supersonic cruise missile Aerospatial ASMP. On July 17, 1974, a 300 Kt TN-80 nuclear warhead was tested, designed to equip this missile. Tests were completed in 1980 and the first ASMP missiles with TN-80 entered service with the French Air Force in September 1985.
The ASMP missile (which is part of the armament of the Mirage 2000M fighter-bombers and the Super Etandar carrier-based attack aircraft) is equipped with a ramjet engine (kerosene is used as fuel) and a solid-propellant booster. The maximum speed at high altitude corresponds to M = 3, at the ground - M = 2. The range of launch ranges is 90-350 km. The launch weight of the KR is 840 kg. A total of 90 ASMP missiles and 80 nuclear warheads were manufactured for them.
Since 1977, China has been implementing national programs to create its own long-range cruise missiles. The first Chinese KR, known as the X-600 or "Hong Nyao-1" (XN-1), was adopted by the ground forces in 1992. It has a maximum range of 600 km and carries a 90-kiloton nuclear warhead. A small-sized turbofan engine was developed for the KR, flight tests of which began in 1985. The X-600 is equipped with an inertial-correlation guidance system, probably supplemented by a satellite correction unit. The final homing system is believed to use a television camera. According to one of the sources, the KVO of the X-600 missile is 5 m. However, this information, apparently, is too optimistic. The radio altimeter installed on board the KR provides flight at an altitude of about 20 m (obviously, above the sea surface).
In 1992, a new, more economical engine was tested for the Chinese KR. This made it possible to increase the maximum launch range to 1500-2000 km. The upgraded version of the cruise missile under the designation KhN-2 was put into service in 1996. The developed modification of the KhN-Z should have a range of about 2500 m.
The KhN-1, KhN-2 and KhN-Z missiles are ground-based weapons. They are deployed on "dirt-mobile" wheeled launchers. However, there are also variants of the CD under development for placement on board surface ships, submarines or on airplanes.
In particular, new Chinese Project 093 multipurpose nuclear submarines are considered as potential carriers of the CD. The missiles should be launched from a submerged position through 533-mm torpedo tubes. The carriers of the airborne version of the KR can be new tactical bombers JH-7A, as well as multi-role fighters J-8-IIM and J-11 (Su-27SK).
In 1995, it was reported that the PRC began flight tests of a supersonic unmanned aircraft, which can be considered a prototype of a promising cruise missile.
Initially, work on the creation of cruise missiles was carried out in China by the Hain Electromechanical Academy and led to the creation of the Hain-1 tactical anti-ship missiles (a variant of the Soviet P-15 anti-ship missile system) and Hain-2. Later, a supersonic anti-ship missile "Hain-Z" with a ramjet engine and a "Hain-4" with a turbojet engine were developed.
In the mid-1980s, NII 8359, as well as the China Institute of Cruise Missiles (however, the latter, perhaps, is the renamed Hain Electromechanical Academy), were established in the PRC to work on the creation of cruise missiles in the PRC.
It is necessary to dwell on the work to improve the warhead of cruise missiles. In addition to combat units of the traditional type, American CDs began to be equipped with fundamentally new types of warheads. During Operation Desert Storm in 1991For the first time, CRs were used, carrying fibers of thin copper wire, scattered over the target. Such a weapon, which later received the unofficial name "I-bomb", served to disable power lines, power plants, substations and other energy facilities: hanging on wires, wire caused a short circuit, depriving the military, industrial and communication centers of the enemy.
During the hostilities against Yugoslavia, a new generation of these weapons was used, where thinner carbon fibers were used instead of copper wire. At the same time, to deliver new "anti-energy" warheads to targets, not only missile launchers are used, but also free-falling aerial bombs.
Another promising type of warheads for American missile launchers is an explosive magnetic warhead, when triggered, a powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is generated, "burning out" the enemy's electronic equipment. In this case, the radius of the damaging effect of the EMP generated by the explosive magnetic warhead is several times greater than the radius of destruction of a conventional high-explosive fragmentation warhead of the same mass. According to a number of media reports, explosive warheads have already been used by the United States in real combat conditions.
Undoubtedly, the role and importance of long-range cruise missiles in non-nuclear weapons will increase in the foreseeable future. However, the effective use of this weapon is possible only if there is a global space navigation system (currently, the United States and Russia have similar systems, and soon the United Europe will join them), a high-precision geoinformation system of combat zones, as well as a multi-level system of aviation and space. reconnaissance, issuing data on the position of targets with their precise (of the order of several meters) geographic referencing. Therefore, the creation of modern high-precision long-range weapons is the lot of only relatively technologically advanced countries capable of developing and maintaining in working order the entire information and intelligence infrastructure that ensures the use of such weapons.
