Russland vs. Ukraine

[Skywalker]

Die Russen haben mittlerweile ihre Kh-101 Marschflugkörper so weit modifiziert das diese automatisch Flares gegen hitzzielsuchende Raketen abwerfen.

Russian Kh-101 Cruise Missile Filmed Firing-Off Decoy Flares
Kh-101 missiles with built-in countermeasures emerged earlier this year, but this is the first time this capability has been seen in use.

BY
JOSEPH TREVITHICK

PUBLISHED DEC 29, 2023 9:42 PM EST


We finally have our first look at a Russian Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile releasing decoy flares in flight. Russia's forces have been employing Kh-101s with this capability in Ukraine on some level since at least January. This is a feature that first emerged publicly after the recovery of a largely intact example of one of these missiles with what was later confirmed to be a countermeasures dispenser system installed. The War Zone had deduced this was likely the case after seeing the images of the downed Kh-101.


Video showing the Kh-101 deploying countermeasures appeared on social media earlier today, but it is unclear where or when it was taken. Its emergence does follow a massive missile and drone barrage on cities across Ukraine today, which included the launch of at least 90 Kh-101, Kh-55, and Kh-555 air-launched cruise missiles, according to Ukrainian authorities. You can read more about Russia's strikes on Ukraine today here.


The subsonic Kh-101 (as well as its nuclear-armed cousin, the Kh-102) is a substantially revised derivative of the Kh-55/Kh-555 family with some stealthy features and other improvements. You can learn more about these missiles in this previous article.

In the video, the countermeasures can be heard popping off as they are fired. They also notably lack the streams of smoke often seen trailing behind decoy flares. They could be spectral flares where the main heat plume is not visible to the naked eye, or just smaller ones with shorter overall burn times. Radar-confusing chaff, which can be made up of bundles of thin metal strips, metalized paper, or fiberglass threads, could also be included in the mix. However, the deployment of chaff is not generally readily visible from the ground. We will come back to all of this in a moment.

The video below shows an U.S. F/A-18 Hornet fighter deploying both flares and chaff.



Reports that Russia had begun fielding a new countermeasure-equipped Kh-101 subvariant, called the Izdeliye 504AP (Object 504AP), first emerged in late 2022. At that time, it was said that the countermeasures were intended to "jam" enemy surface-to-air missiles, which could point to dispensers loaded with chaff.


After the wreckage of the Kh-101 with the dispenser was recovered in January of this year, the Ukrainian outlet Defense Express put out a report about the countermeasures capabilities, citing anonymous sources. That story said the missile could carry dispensers pre-loaded with either flares ("thermal traps") or chaff. Defense Express also published pictures of one of the dispenser units, including an x-ray image, which it asserted proved that the cartridges inside were flares.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ru...coy-flares