Kh-29L
| This page is about the Soviet air-to-ground missile Kh-29L. For the other version, see Kh-29T. |
Contents
Description
The Kh-29L is a Soviet laser-guided air-to-ground missile. It was introduced in Update "Ixwa Strike". It is a heavy duty Soviet air-to-ground missile, born from a similar fuselage design of the Molniya R-60, a laser seeker inherited from the Kh-25, and a powerful warhead. It features impressive range and destruction capabilities against a variety of surface targets, giving pilots a heavy duty weapon capable of decimating anything in their path.
Vehicles equipped with this weapon
General info
| Missile characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Mass | 657 kg |
| Guidance | Laser |
| Maximum speed | 1.8 M |
| Missile guidance time | 40 secs |
| Firing range | 8 km |
| Explosive mass | 148.99 kg TNTeq |
| Armour penetration | 84 mm |
The Kh-29L (9M721) is the biggest air-to-ground missile with its twin sister, the Kh-29T. It is comparable to heavy duty utility bombs carried by various planes, making it one of the deadliest missiles in-game. It is not only able to take out multiple targets at a time, but also the biggest targets such as battleships and aircraft carriers.
Effective damage
The Kh-29L is the most devastating and versatile air-launched guided missile when it comes to ground pounding. The explosive mass is something to be scared of. While smaller than most bombs, this is compensated for by the accuracy of the missile. It has a maximum range of 8,000 metres, 10,000 metres (5.4 nmi) if flight ceiling is high enough. As any other laser-guided munition, the target must be laser designated. Contrary to other laser designators (such as TIALD on Jaguar GR.1A), the laser designator features the same control use of the Kh-23M and Kh-25: nose guided control. For the same reason, the Kh-29L is a tricky missile to use on small moving targets at long ranges. It is particularly useful when facing stationary targets or big and slow targets. This is changed when using aircraft like the MiG-27 as they have their proper laser designator.
While the Kh-29L has relatively low penetration capabilities (103 mm at any range and angle), any hit will decimate the target due to the tremendous explosive mass it features. Due to the 148.99 kg TNT equivalent explosive mass, the missile is more than capable of destroying more than one target at a time if closely packed. The warhead is also particularly useful when facing off enemy vessels, specially aircraft carriers in Simulator Enduring Confrontation battles. Due to the carriers having actual damage models in a similar style to player controlled vessels, the use of this missile is more than capable of significantly damaging the carrier. There are multiple hit locations, but the most effective ones are the ones on the engine decks and close to the waterline.
Comparison with analogues
- Kh-29T - While being the same missile, the different seeker makes the same weapon to be used in a different way.
- AS-30L Nord - The Kh-29L is much better than the Nord in multiple ways, not only is it faster, has a bigger warhead, and better penetration, but it also has an increased guidance time: 40.0 seconds vs 22.0 seconds.
- AGM-65A/AGM-65B - Between the AGM-65A and B Mavericks and the Kh-29L, there are multiple pros and cons between them. While Maverick has a much longer range, guidance time and can be carried in sets of 3 instead of a single missile, it is much slower, smaller, and weighs less than half of the Kh-29L.
- AGM-65D - Similar to the other Mavericks, the main advantage of the D variant is the IR seeker, which strongly improves the designation range compared to the Kh-29L.
Usage in battles
You should first practice in custom battles to spot tanks from several kilometres away. While it's easier to aim and hit at close ranges, it is also easier to be identified and eliminated by an anti-air vehicle. The missile isn't significantly faster than your plane, (assuming your plane is cruising at Mach 1 while in a dive to use your nose-mounted laser) so depending on the situation, you might want to consider deploying brakes after launching the missile to maintain maximum distance from anti-air vehicles.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- The biggest and most powerful air-launched missile
- Devastating warhead
- Incredible speeds for a missile its size
- Significant range compared to other air-to-ground missiles
Cons:
- Requires user to aim directly at targets
History
Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
- Kh-29T - TV-guided variant
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
