Soviet and Russian aviation researcher Piotr Butowski in his article for the Polish ZBIAM described the genesis of the russian Kh-101 cruise missiles.
In this text, Piotr Butovsky claims in particular that as early as 2017, the russians conducted tests of a version of this missile under the index Izdelie 504AP, which differed from the basic version by the presence of a SP-504 active jamming station (the production of such a station also started in 2017). In addition, the Izdelie 504AP was distinguished by the presence of the the Otblesk-U navigation system, with the principle of operation similar to the Western TERCOM and DSMAC systems used on the American Tomahawk cruise missiles.
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According to the researcher, during 2021-2022, the Russian military-industrial complex produced only 111 "kits for the production" of such cruise missiles.
At the same time, in parallel with the production of X-101 in the Izdelie 504AP version, the Russians also produced X-101 missiles in the Izdelie 504A version, which do not have an "upgrade" in the form of the Otblesk-U system and the SP-504 station.
At the same time, the author of the publication claims that for the first time the russian Kh-101 missile in the Izdelye 504AP version was shot down by Ukrainian air defense near Kyiv in November 2022. This missie apparently had a serial number starting with "315", which indicated the period of production precisely in the 3rd quarter of last year.
In fact, here Butovsky is simply repeating some information that Defense Express made public in one of its publications as early as February 2023. In particular, we wrote about the fact that approximately from November last year, the russians began using Kh-101 missiles with jamming stations to try to overcome Ukrainian air defense. It should be noted that the enemy did not succeed in this matter.
During a briefing held in mid-February 2023, the Center for Research of Trophy and Prospective Weapons and Military Equipment of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine officially recognized the fact of the russians using modified Kh-101 missiles (as we now know - in the Izdelye 504AP version) , in which the enemy did not succeed.
In particular, it became known that the enemy had modernized the camera in the Otblesk-U guidance system. In addition, in order to manufacture the X-101 missiles of the new generation, the russians were forced to use microchips of older generations due to a lack of components. In particular, such microchips were used to manufacture the BAGET-64-02 on-board computer, which is responsible for the operation of all on-board systems of this cruise missile.
Defense Express reported, that the Armed Forces of Ukraine Already Got Guided Missiles with a Longer Range Than HIMARS’ GMLRS.
Read more: The russian 'Stealth' Was Fake: Research Shows no Radar-Absorbent Coating on Kh-101 Missile
