Bliskavka / Lightning - ASM

"Lightning" is a supersonic guided air-to-surface missile designed to destroy a wide range of ground or surface targets at a range of up to 110 km at speeds up to 2500 km/h. Since the missile is designed as a Ukrainian analogue of the Soviet X-31, it also has common characteristics - a range of 110 km and probably a similar mass of the warhead 87-100 kg (for different types of X-31). "Lightning" has a length of 5.12 meters and a diameter of 0.35 m. Soviet X-31P - a length of 4.7 meters and a diameter of 0.36 m.

The engine for "Lightning" began to be created in 2012. The new generation engine for the "Lightning" rocket will be developed by the designers of the state enterprise "Ivchenko-Progress". In the Dnieper, design engineers of the State Enterprise "CB" Southern "them. MK Yangel "continue to work on the creation of a new supersonic aircraft missile" Lightning ". The missile is planned to be used on Su-24M front-line bombers, and, subject to appropriate adaptation, on other modern types of aircraft of various manufacturers.

Dmytro Kalynychenko, the head of the project complex of Pivdenne Design Bureau, spoke about this in the Security Talks program with Valentyn Badrak. "During the development, we relied on existing aircraft, namely the Su-24, Su-27 and MiG-29, - said Dmitry Kalinichenko. - Our missile can be used on them. Currently, the Su-24M is designed to use air-to-surface missiles, and the Su-27 and MiG-29 must be adapted."

The Pivdenne Design Bureau also provided for the possibility of adapting the Lightning to foreign carriers, in particular the American-made F-15 and F-16 multi-role fighters, the French Rafale or the Chinese J-10.

"We have developed a special container that is placed between the aircraft catapult device and the wing or fuselage of the aircraft. And in this container the equipment providing preparation and launch of the rocket from the carrier plane is already established. It provides target training, missile power, and possible information on the use of enemy air defenses or devices that may interfere with flight. In order to choose the trajectory of the missile's flight to the target, depending on this, - explained the head of the project complex of the State Enterprise "CB" Southern"" Dmitry Kalinichenko. "That is, we have developed a kit that can be hung. All you need are mechanical interfaces, which we've made very flexible - there are a lot of brackets and they can be moved to different distances."

"You probably know that the MiG-29 has been upgraded and tested for launching the X-29 air-to-surface missile. That is, potentially Lightning can already be used there, especially since the X-29 uses a similar aircraft ejection device ", - Dmytro Kalynychenko noted. "You probably know that the MiG-29 has been upgraded and tested for launching the X-29 air-to-surface missile. That is, potentially Lightning can already be used there, especially since the X-29 uses a similar aircraft ejection device ", - Dmytro Kalynychenko noted.

"We have developed a special container that is placed between the aircraft catapult device and the wing or fuselage of the aircraft. And in this container is already installed equipment to prepare and launch the rocket from the carrier aircraft. the use of enemy air defenses or EW means. In order to choose the trajectory of the flight to the target of the missile, depending on this, "- explained the head of the design complex of the CB "South". "That is, we have developed a kit that can be suspended and will only need mechanical interfaces, which we have made very flexible - there are many brackets and they can be moved at different distances," he added.

However, the plans of the developers of the Ukrainian missile did not stop there. In addition to the actual aviation version of the supersonic missile, which in its "classic" form has a range of up to 110 km at a speed of up to 2500 km / h and can be used against various types of land and sea targets, there are plans to create a ground or ship version of such a missile.

"First of all, there has to be a bigger starting engine, because when we start from an airplane we have a speed that is added to the rocket's speed. And when we start from a ground launcher, or a naval launcher, we need to pick up more speed. a container (TPK) and a launcher will be manufactured, "Dmytro Kalynychenko said. At the same time, there are some doubts about the feasibility of creating at least a terrestrial version of such a missile with the parameters that have been released so far (for the type of "air-surface"), except as another short-range supersonic anti-ship complex RCC "Neptune" has subsonic speed).

That is, in fact, there will be a more controlled and expensive analogue of the guided MLRS "Alder-M", which also has a larger mass of warheads (170 kg) and the development of which still needs a lot of work, while the rocket projectile from DKKB "Luch" is already at the final stage state tests.