Soon a new short-range air-to-air missile in Russia

Since the end of the Soviet Union, Russian fighter planes have been equipped with short, medium and long range Air-Air missiles which are only evolved versions of those which already equipped the planes with the red star cockade. Thus, the radar interception at medium and long distance is entrusted to the R-77 of the company Vympel, whose development was started in 1982, and whose tests began barely some time before the breakup of the USSR. For swirling combat, Russian fighters, including the Su-57, rely on the R-73 missile and its evolved version R-74, still developed by Vympel, the design of which dates back to the 70s. Although very effective when it entered service, the R-73 surpassing most missiles of the same type in the West at the same time, it is now overtaken by the last western missiles.

It is thus frequent that what is presented by the Russian state press as a new missile turns out to be, in reality, a modernized version of an existing missile and developed at least 20 years before. This is particularly the case of R-37 ultra-long range air-to-air missile, developed by Vympel in the early 80s before being abandoned for lack of funds in 1998, then resurrected by the Putin administration in 2006 to finally enter service in 2020 under the name R-37M. In fact, the missiles that equip Russian fighter planes are now beginning to mark the weight of the years against their Western counterparts, and major customers such as India and China have started work to equip them. their local Su-30 and Mig-29 missile aircraft (Chinese PL10, PL12) ou Western (European ASRAAM and MICA), which, of course, is not at all to the taste of Russian industrialists and officials.

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