Bisnovat R-40
Encyclopedia : B : BI : BIS : Bisnovat R-40
The Bisnovat (later Molniya) R-40 (NATO reporting name AA-6 'Acrid') was a long-range air-to-air missile developed in the 1960s by the Soviet Union for used by interceptor aircraft.
Development
The Bisnovat design bureau began development of a long-range air-to-air missile in 1962. The resulting R-40 was initially matched with the Smerch-A (Tornado-A) radar of the MiG-25. It was built in semi-active radar homing (R-40R) and infrared-homing (R-40T) versions.Following the defection of PVO pilot Viktor Belenko in 1976, Vympel developed an improved version of the missile with superior countermeasures resistance and more sensitive seekers. The upgraded missiles were designated with the suffix -D (for dorabotanaya, "finalized"). Later -D1 versions were also developed.
Production of the R-40 ended in 1991, but it remains in limited service arming surviving MiG-25 and some MiG-31 interceptors.
Specifications (R-40TD / R-40RD)
- Length: (R-40TD) 5.98 m (19 ft 7.5 in); (R-40RD) 6.22 m (20 ft 5 in)
- Wingspan: 1450 mm (4 ft 9 in)
- Diameter: 310 mm (12.2 in)
- Launch weight: (R-40TD) 450 kg (990 lb); (R-40RD) 461 kg (1,015 lb)
- Speed: Mach 4.5
- Range: 30 km (19 mi); 60 km (37 mi)
- Guidance: (R-40TD) infrared homing; (R-40RD) semi-active radar homing
- Warhead: 70 kg (154 lb) blast fragmentation
External links
|
Lists of Aircraft | Aircraft manufacturers | Aircraft engines | Aircraft engine manufacturers
| Airlines | Air forces | Aircraft weapons | Missiles | Timeline of aviation |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.