Shooting down cruise missiles is relatively easy. Much easier than, for example, ballistic missiles. It is possible to shoot down a cruise missile even with a shoulder-fired missile or well-aimed shots from an anti-aircraft autocannon. Therefore, in order to terrorize the population of Ukraine more effectively, Russia is improving its cruise missiles.
Kh-101 firing flares somewhere over Ukraine. (Screenshot)
A Kh-101 was filmed over Ukraine releasing so-called “heat traps” – sparks of burning metal designed to fool air defense missiles that seek infrared. They are better known simply as flares. They are made to fool those air defense missiles that follow a heat source (usually an engine). Firing flares is an old trick used by most aircraft operating in the combat zone. The idea is simple – a missile with an IR seeker will hit a hot flare in the sky and miss its real target.
Military helicopters and airplanes are commonly seen firing flares. And now the Ukrainians have filmed a Kh-101 cruise missile sowing flares as well:
😬 Russian X-101 fires off heat traps… pic.twitter.com/uRptpa4PMu
— MAKS 23 👀🇺🇦 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) December 29, 2023
The ability to shoot flares is said to be a recent upgrade to the Kh-101. But it’s actually not that strange.
Cruise missiles are not rockets – they do not have rocket engines. These are unmanned aerial vehicles. Like small airplanes with aerodynamic surfaces (wings), control systems and, by the way, jet engines. The Kh-101 uses a fairly simple turbofan engine – the same type of engine used by the aircraft you fly on vacation. So if a plane can shoot flares, why can’t the Kh-101?
You think there is no room for them? There is! The Kh-101 is 7.45 metres long and at launch weighs 2.2-2.4 tonnes. It is quite a large and heavy aircraft.
The Kh-101 was developed from the Kh-55, which has a round fuselage. By flattening it to make the Kh-101 less radar-detectable and to have a more aerodynamically efficient shape, they also made some room for additional equipment. For example, the Kh-101 has a system that helps it combat electronic warfare systems. Also, those flare devices are pretty small.
A wreckage of a Kh-101 missile, shot down in January 2023. Ukrainians believe that the ability to fire flares is new for the Kh-101. Image credit: Air Force Command of Ukrainian Armed Forces via Wikimedia, CC BY 4.0
The first tests of the Kh-101 were carried out back in 1995, but this missile was accepted into service in Russia only in 2012. It is estimated that one Kh-101 cruise missile costs about 13 million dollars. Launching it is not cheap either – such missiles are launched by big aircraft such as the Tu-22M3.
Do flares protect the Kh-101? Well, yes and no. They could fool an IR-seeking missile, but many air defense weapons now have different guidance systems. There’s no way radar-guided missiles would be fooled by those flares.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: Maks_NAFO_FELLA Twitter, Wikipedia