The U.K. Defense Ministry’s Defense Intelligence in its latest update on the situation in Ukraine published confirmation that Kh-55 cruise missiles (NATO reporting name: AS-15 "Kent") are used for strikes on Ukraine, which are intended to deliver a nuclear warhead. In the missiles a ballasts were installed instead of a regular special combat units.
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“Open source imagery shows wreckage of an apparently shot-down AS-15 KENT air launched cruise missile (ALCM), designed in the 1980s exclusively as a nuclear delivery system. The warhead had probably been substituted for ballast,” the ministry said.
Information about the use of the X-55, along with a photo of the full-size mock-up with which the downed cruise missile was equipped, was obtained by Defense Express from its own sources after the mass attack in mid-November.
It was also reported in London that the most likely reason for the use of the X-55 with an imitator was only an increase in the number of missiles in the launch to jam the channel of Ukraine’s anti-aircraft missile systems.
It is noted that although such an inert system will still produce some damage through the missile’s kinetic energy and any unspent fuel, it is “unlikely to achieve reliable effects against intended targets.”
The British Defense Ministry suggests that Russia may use such missiles “as decoys and divert Ukrainian air defences”.
“Whatever Russia’s intent, this improvisation highlights the level of depletion in Russia’s stock of long-range missiles,” the ministry said.
Note that the design of the X-55 and its non-nuclear version, the X-555, differ from each other. Due to the significantly larger size and weight of the high-explosive warhead, the X-555 has changed the size of its fuel tanks. Thus, there is no opportunity to install a high-explosive fragmentation warhead in the Kh-55. For this, it is necessary to rework the missile through conversion, as well as to install more accurate means of guidance due to the fact that the deviation parameters are no longer compensated by the guaranteed radius of damage of the nuclear charge.
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