View to a kill
PART TWO
http://www.airforcesmonthly.com #363 JUNE 2018 // 111control. 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 InternationalAviation 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 bythe 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- 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 MoDLeft: 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