TechRussian su-30sm2 spotted with r-37m missiles capable of 400km range

Russian su‑30sm2 spotted with r‑37m missiles capable of 400km range

A recording has surfaced online showing the Russian Su-30SM2 aircraft carrying the highly interesting and dangerous R-37M air-to-air missiles introduced into service just a few years ago. We present their capabilities.

Russian Su-30SM2 with R-37M air-to-air missiles.
Russian Su-30SM2 with R-37M air-to-air missiles.
Images source: © X (formerly Twitter) | 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔇𝔢𝔞𝔡 𝔇𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔦𝔠𝔱
Przemysław Juraszek

23 May 2024 10:12

The Su-30SM2 itself is not groundbreaking, as it is an evolution of the Su-27 fighter jet, first flown in the late '80s, similar to the Su-35S. We are dealing with an over 18,000-kilogram (takeoff weight) twin-engine, single-seat machine mainly designed to achieve air superiority but capable of attacking ground targets. Besides the 30 mm GSh-30-1 cannon, the aircraft has 12 pylons for carrying weapons.

The R-37M missiles it carries are much more interesting, visible in the recording below. These are very long-range weapons designed to combat aircraft such as AWACS.

R-37M - Russian AWACS hunter

The Russians introduced the R-37M missiles into service in 2019. They are a developed version of the R-33 missiles used on the MiG-31 interceptors. The main change was using an active radar homing head, making the missile a "fire-and-forget" solution.

This increased its effectiveness and allowed it to be mounted on aircraft equipped with more minor, and thus weaker, radars. The older R-33 missile required continuous target illumination by the aircraft's radar until impact, which was problematic for machines with weaker radars.

With the R-37M, this problem does not exist because the missile can be launched near the target area, and its onboard radar will find it independently. The main feature of these missiles is their enormous range, which, according to the Russians, reaches up to 400 kilometres in glide mode and a speed exceeding Mach 5 (6,182 kilometres per hour).

This allows for the engagement of AWACS-type machines at several hundred kilometres or fighter jets at distances over 100 kilometres (the more manoeuvrable the target, the shorter the intercept range).

As a result, this is a very heavy air-to-air missile weighing about 500 kilograms. Only 60 kilograms are allocated to the fragmentation warhead, which, however, is sufficient for airborne targets.

© Daily Wrap
·

Downloading, reproduction, storage, or any other use of content available on this website—regardless of its nature and form of expression (in particular, but not limited to verbal, verbal-musical, musical, audiovisual, audio, textual, graphic, and the data and information contained therein, databases and the data contained therein) and its form (e.g., literary, journalistic, scientific, cartographic, computer programs, visual arts, photographic)—requires prior and explicit consent from Wirtualna Polska Media Spółka Akcyjna, headquartered in Warsaw, the owner of this website, regardless of the method of exploration and the technique used (manual or automated, including the use of machine learning or artificial intelligence programs). The above restriction does not apply solely to facilitate their search by internet search engines and uses within contractual relations or permitted use as specified by applicable law.Detailed information regarding this notice can be found  here.