Kh-25ML
| This page is about the Soviet air-to-ground missile Kh-25ML. For the other version, see Kh-25. |
Contents
Description
The Kh-25ML is a Soviet laser-guided air-to-ground missile. It was introduced in Update "Direct Hit".
Vehicles equipped with this weapon
General info
| Missile characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Mass | 297 kg |
| Guidance | Laser |
| Maximum speed | 2 M |
| Missile guidance time | 45 secs |
| Firing range | 10 km |
| Explosive mass | 119.04 kg TNTeq |
| Armour penetration | 82 mm |
Effective damage
Describe the type of damage produced by this type of missile (high explosive, splash damage, etc)
Comparison with analogues
Give a comparative description of missiles that have firepower equal to this weapon.
Usage in battles
There is no effective, practical usage for the Kh25ML in combat, due to the extreme limitation in target acquisition capability of the MiG-27M. This makes it very difficult to utilize the Kh25ML's long range and high average flight speed. Thus, the Kh25ML is best in PvE game modes where the enemy marker is visible and can be used to compensate the poor zoom in the MiG-27M's targeting view.
To use the Kh25ML: 1. Fly your aircraft with the nose directly towards the target as if you are using MCLOS-guided AGM, like the AGM-12 Bullpup. 2. Warm up the missile by pressing the Weapon lock (air-to-ground) button. 3. Switch to the targeting view. You must acquire a target before you switch since the lack of effective zoom in the MiG-27M's targeting view makes it unsuitable for visual target acquisition. 4. Press the Toggle Laser Designator button to active the laser target designator. 5. Wait for the missile prompt to change from grey ACQ to red TRK. 6. Fire the missile and keep the crosshair overlapped on the enemy marker. 7. Switch out of the targeting view and wait for impact. Due to the low zoom, any mouse movement will translate into a very large shift in the laser designated position, which will easily cause the missile to lose track of the target or jerk out of control; thus exiting the targeting view can eliminate this possibility.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Very long burning rocket motor (2 seconds booster, 8 seconds sustainer) providing much higher average flight speed than other AGM in game
- Large warhead that guarantees the destruction of a well-armoured MBT even when missed by a few metres
Cons:
- Uses proportional guidance, prone to sudden movement if launch platform does not have automated target tracking capability
- The only carrying aircraft, MiG-27M, has almost non-existent zoom in targeting view. Which makes Kh25ML unusable in Simulator Battle and Ground Realistic Battle. Since pilot can only reliably visually spot target within 4km, and small turret traverse angle preclude circling battlefield for usage of Mark I eyeball.
- Need to activate laser designator and warm up missile separately. Even if pilot spotted target, due to high speed of MiG-27M, by the time pilot activates laser designator and warm up the missile, pilot will be within 2km of target, which may well give up on Kh25ML and use guns instead, or carry dumb bombs in the first place.
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
- Related development
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
