The Russian Aerospace Defence Forces or VKO plans to order the new Kh-32 (also named X-32) cruise missiles to arm its Tupolev Tu-22M3 “Backfire” bombers.
The VKO has successfully conducted Operational Evaluation trials of the Kh-32 air-launched stand-off cruise missile. The Kh-32 can use a combination of GLONASS and GPS and radar terrain mapping to achieve extremely high levels of accuracy such as that found in modern cruise missiles.
According to the information available, Kh-32 missile made on the basis of Kh-22 and similar to its predecessor in most basic characteristics is to replace Kh-22. The maximum speed of Kh-32 will be 4000 km/h, which is quite similar to the previous missile.
However, its range should be must greater – it will be 800-1000 km vs. 450-600 for Kh-22. It is expected that Kh-32 will become available in 2018.
