Kh-66

Description

The Kh-66 missile (scale is approximate)

The Kh-66 is a Soviet SACLOS-guided air-to-ground missile. It was introduced during Update "Hot Tracks".

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• MiG-21PFM

General info

Missile characteristics
Mass	278 kg
Guidance	Semi-automatic (SACLOS)
Maximum speed	2 M
Missile guidance time	25 secs
Firing range	10 km
Explosive mass	65.28 kg TNTeq
Armour penetration	74 mm

Effective damage

While a direct hit is almost always guaranteed to cripple if not outright destroy an enemy tank. What makes the Kh-66 particularly deadly is it's ability to destroy light and even medium armored targets with near-missies. In conclusion, the Kh-66 is deadly when a pilot takes the time to master it in ground battles.

Comparison with analogues

While a decent choice for players compared to the less effective S-5K missiles available to them. It lacks behind other nations such as the US and Italy as the AGM-12 has an extra 2km range on the Kh-66. Another downside being that the aircraft can only carry two missiles compared to the Italian G.91 R/4 and US A-4B/E which can carry 4 missiles each (five in the case of the A-4E). One positive may be that certain players find that mouse-aimed missiles work better than using the WASD keys on ones keyboard to guide the missile to the target. Alternatively, one may find that they are getting better performance than other air-to-ground missiles due to the Kh-66's superior explosive mass, leading to better outcomes against lightly armored targets.

Overall, the Kh-66 fulfills the same role as it's real life counterpart did; as a stopgap weapon serving its purpose until better weaponry is available.

Usage in battles

The Kh-66 is used to perform Close Air Support from outside enemy AA effective range.

Pros and cons

Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.

Pros:

• Greater range than most AA missiles
• High explosive mass

Cons:

• Hard to aim
• Only two missiles
• Heavy weight impacts flight performance
• Less range than AGM-12 Bullpup

History

The Kh-66 is an early version of the Kh-23 Гром(Grom) air-to-ground missile. The missile was developed from the existing K-5 and K-8 (RS-2-US) beam-riding air-to-air missiles. Just before the war in Vietnam, the United States began fielding new guided missiles; most notably the AGM-12 Bullpup, which caused the Soviet Ministry of Aircraft Industry to request an air-to-ground version of earlier RS-2-US beam riding air-to-air missile.

As a result, engineer Yurii N. Korolyov came up with his own proposals based these missiles. This new missile was designated Kh-66 (as the year it entered design/testing was 1966) and began to be used on the Mig-21PFM airframe(Itself a testbed aircraft designed in conjunction with the Kh-66). Later in 1968, the missile finally entered service. The weapon was an amalgamation of the K-5 and K-8's guidance and propulsion systems and had an increased warhead for better performance against ground and sea-based targets. While the missile performed at the required specifications set by the Soviet government, the weapon was only a stopgap measure until more suitable armaments were developed. This was due to the flaws in utilizing the weapon as the pilot had to dive towards his target and maintain a lock with the gunsight. The missile was further developed into the Kh-23 by Korolyov again in early 1968 with the intention of making the weapon more effective. With the advent of better technology, the missile was upgraded to a line-of-sight radio-command weapon similar to the Bullpup, allowing it to be fired in level flight. With this, the Kh-66 was effectively put out of production for new models by 1973.

Media

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See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the article about the variant of the weapon;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.