New missile for Russian fifth-generation fighter to be developed by 2016

ASTANA, May 23./Itar-Tass/. A new modified aircraft missile for Russian fifth-generation fighters would be developed by 2016, the director-general of the Tactical Missiles Corporation, Boris Obnosov, said on Friday at the Kadex 2014 exhibition of weapons and military equipment in Astana, Kazakhstan.

"We have established close contact with the Sukhoi design office. A permanent working group is formed. All the protocols of informational cooperation are agreed on. Models are made according to schedule. Everything must be done by 2016," Obnosov said, noting it was a new modified aircraft cruise missile X-74M2.

It was hard work. Intensity of tests was very high. Even the main test centre coped with it with difficulty, he added.

The Tactical Missiles Corporation also planned to develop the first model of a hypersonic missile by 2020, the corporation's director-general said.

Russia had completed working out a programme to develop hypersonic missile technologies. The Defense Ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Trade had already approved the programme, Obnosov said.

Twelve working groups were formed with the participation of dozens of institutes and companies. The programme was already worked out and approved. The main thing was to implement it, he said.

Key areas were determined. There was understanding in the Defence Ministry, he added.

"If we are behind others it will be hard to catch up with them later. Purposeful, systematic and everyday work is needed," the director-general noted, referring to other countries' developments in the field.

"If somebody thinks that tomorrow we will pull a hypersonic missile from a pocket, the one is mistaken, since the process to create it requires serious scientific and technical developments, serious tests, personnel training and many other things," Obnosov said.