Russia's Raduga cruise missile design bureau is to use cash from its sale of the 3M-80 (SS-N-22 Sunburn) supersonic anti-ship missile to China to fund development of a next-generation hypersonic anti-ship weapon.
China will receive the rocket/ ramjet-powered 3M-80 as part of its purchase of two Sovremmeny- class destroyers. The Progress plant at Arseneyev is manufacturing the export variant of the missile, the 3M-80E. An initial batch of 50 3M-80 missiles is claimed to be being built for China.
According to Russian press reports, export clearance for the supersonic sea skimmer was made dependent on the revenue being used to continue development of a follow-on weapon.
The design bureau has been working on a Mach 3-5 missile and has displayed the experimental rocket/ramjet GELA. A limited number of test-launches of the GELA are known to have been carried out from a Tupolev Tu-95 Bear testbed, but with mixed results. Guidance for the hypersonic missile is being developed by Altair.
Raduga's chief designer, Igor Seleznyov, also says that the design bureau is offering a range improvement for the Russian navy's 3M-80 missiles. The maximum range of the basic 3M-80 is between 90km (55 miles) and 120km, but this can be increased to 150km or 200km.
Increasing the range to 200km would require fitting the missile with an additional ventral fuel tank, according to Seleznyov.
Raduga is also in the final stage of developing a conventional precision attack air-launched cruise missile, the Kh-101.
Source: Flight International