Airforces Tornado tribute

View to a kill

PART TWO

http://www.airforcesmonthly.com #363 JUNE 2018 // 111

control. The

missile project

was never completed.

The collapse of the Soviet

Union and the ensuing economic turmoil

undoubtedly impacted the development of

a follow-on to the R-73. This difficulty has

been only compounded by the breakdown

in relations with Ukraine – part of the former

Soviet Union until 1992. Within the Soviet

Union, Ukrainian industry played a central

role in AAM development and production

including producing infrared seekers.

It’s likely the K-30 was originally intended for

service entry in the late 1990s, but by 1997

Vympel was showing a mock-up of what was

called the K-74M at the Moscow International

Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS). The

K-74M (izdeliye 750) design replaced the

previous Mayak (lighthouse) seeker with

the two-band infrared Impuls-90

seeker. The Impuls-90 (impulse;

IS-90) seeker is more sensitive

(maximum range is 9.3-

12.4 miles, 15-20km)

and it has an

increased off-

bore-sight angle of

+/-60°. The K-74M

also introduced digital

signal processing. Apart

from minor changes in the

dimensions of the seeker, the

external appearance of the missile

is unchanged. The new Impuls seeker,

like the previous Mayak, was developed by

the Ukrainian Arsenal Company of Kiev.

The programme, however, then disappeared

from public view for more than a decade,

only for the missile to be displayed again

in 2009 with the export designation RVV-

MD (Raketa Vozdukh-Vozdukh Maloy

Dalnosti, short-range air-to-air missile).

The K-74M missile completed state evaluation

in October 2012 and was officially commissioned

into service with the Russian Air Force with the

military designation R-74M (the letter K denotes

a missile in the development phase; after

entering service it receives the R designation).

It is fielded in two sub-variants: the R-74MK

(izdeliye 750K) with radar proximity fuse and

R-74ML (izdeliye 750L) with laser fuse; the

latter is offered for export as the RVV-MDL.

On June 7, 2013, the Duks Company of

Moscow secured an order from the Russian

defence ministry to produce the first batch of

153 R-74MK and ML missiles by November

2015. Accordingly, in August 2013, Duks
      signed a follow-on contract with Ukraine’s
      Arsenal to deliver Impuls-90 seekers. Yuri
      Klishin, the general manager of Duks, told

Above: Flashback to February 2016 and a Belarusian Yak-130 launches an R-73. The missile is propelled

by a single-stage engine with an operation time of 4.1 to 6.8 seconds. The time of controlled fl ight,

limited by the capacity of the on-board energy source, is 23 seconds. Belarusian MoD

Left: A J-10B armed with PL-10s (inboard), as

well as this missile’s predecessor in People’s

Liberation Army service, the PL-8B. The

latter features an all-aspect seeker and is

compatible with a helmet-mounted sight

and remains China’s standard short-range

AAM. via Chinese internet