Su-57 jet gets hypersonic missile
A hypersonic anti-aircraft missile with a range of over 300km will be part of the arsenal of the Su-57, Russia’s most-advanced multipurpose fighter jet. The weapon is meant to take out high-value targets with impunity.
The Su-57 is Russia’s first 5th-generation aircraft, designed to be a formidable threat to major air powers such as the US. It is normally expected to carry weapons in its internal bays, to reduce radar cross-section and avoid compromising its stealth capabilities. But larger missiles may be carried externally at a hardpoint, and one of those will be the R-37M, a missile with a greater range than anything the US aircraft would have at their disposal.
An R-37 (K-37/RVV-BD) missile mock-up shown at the MAKS-2013 air show in Russia. © Vitaly Kuzmin/Wikimedia
The R-37M is an upgraded version of the missile that came into service in 1985. The older variant is among the larger air-to-air missiles, measuring 4.2 meters in length and 600kg in weight, suitable only for bigger aircraft like the Mig-31BM interceptor.
The updated missile’s main feature is its range, which is reported as 300km, although some sources say it may be as high as 400km, depending on flight profile. The costly missile is meant to take down equally important targets like AWACS planes, but with Mach 6 speeds and an active-seeker homing system taking over during the terminal phase, it poses a threat to more agile targets like fighter jets.
