Copyright McGraw-Hill:
Russian missile manufacturer NPO Mashinostroyenia has finally released a test image of its 3M25 Meteorit strategic cruise missile. The air-launched variant of the Meteorit, probably designated Kh-80, is shown being dropped from an inboard pylon of a Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bomber. The Meteorit program was begun in the late 1970s, and ended in the early 1990s.
Deployment was curtailed by the 1988 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the U.S. and then-Soviet Union.
Air-, ship- and submarine-launched variants of the turbojet-powered missile were designed to include a number of novel technologies. The Marabu plasma-field generating system to reduce the radar-cross section of the high-flying missile is believed to be one of them. The weapon featured a high supersonic cruise speed and range of several thousand kilometers. Around 20 launches were conducted off a Tu-95MA flying testbed bomber.
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