18 nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and China

[John Nayduk]

Friday, March 18, 2005 Updated at 8:12 AM EST

Associated Press

 
Kiev â ” Ukrainian weapons dealers smuggled 18 nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and China during former president Leonid Kuchma's administration, prosecutors said Friday.

The KH55 cruise missiles were smuggled out of Ukraine four years ago, the Prosecutor General's office said in a statement. Prosecutors said the missiles, which have a range of 3,000 kilometres, were sold illegally and were not exported by Ukrainian enterprises.

The Associated Press reported last month that a government probe into lucrative illicit weapons sales by officials loyal to Mr. Kuchma has led to secret indictments or arrests of at least six arms dealers.

Six missiles purportedly ended up in Iran and another six allegedly went to China, although export documents known as end-user certificates recorded the final recipient of some 20 Kh-55 missiles as â Å“Russia's Defense Ministry,â ? according to a letter written by a lawmaker to current President Vladimir Yushchenko.

The letter by lawmaker Hrihoriy Omelchenko did not say what happened to the eight other missiles. The Kh-55, known in the West as the AS-15, is designed to carry a nuclear warhead with a 200-kiloton yield.

 

[JasonH]

Gotta love the black market.  :

 

[JasonH]

The AS-15  strategic cruise missile is used for destroying targets whose coordinates are known. Its guidance system combines inertial-Doppler navigation and position correction based on comparison of terrain in the assigned regions with images stored in the memory of an on-board computer. The propulsion system is a dual-flow engine located underneath the missile's tail. The missile carries a 200 kt nuclear warhead.

The first tests of this missile were conducted in 1978 and a few units were installed on Tu-95MS aircraft in 1984. Three aircraft versions of this missile are known: Kh-55 (Article 120, alias RKV-500, NATO's AS-15a),

 

[DBA]

Air to Surface CM, 200 kT nuclear warhead, turbofan, 150 m CEP, Raduga Design Bureau, 600 deployed in 1991; launch range 50 - 250 km; launch altitude 200 - 12000 m; for Kh - 55 top speed Mach 0.5 - 0.75; dual - flow turbojet; terrain following; integrated satellite navigation; flight altitude 40 - 110 m; accuracy 18 - 26 m

Something to keep in mind with regards to nuclear warheads. The size, weight and yield are something that was improved by lots of work and testing over several decades. A less advanced nuclear program may fail to even produce any device below a given size/weight or produce one with a very low yield compared to whats fielded by others.

 

[vangemeren]

The Associated Press reported last month that a government probe into lucrative illicit weapons sales by officials loyal to Mr. Kuchma has led to secret indictments or arrests of at least six arms dealers.

Am I the only one who notices that Ukraine under Kuchma sent troops to Iraq, but his officials were selling weapons to other enemies of the U.S, Iran and China? The world works in weird ways.

 

[I_am_John_Galt]

Am I the only one who notices that Ukraine under Kuchma sent troops to Iraq, but his officials were selling weapons to other enemies of the U.S, Iran and China? The world works in weird ways.

Check out France's history of arms sales sometime ...

 

[tomahawk6]

I wonder how the Iranian's are going to launch their cruise missiles, off the back of a truck ?