Kh-55 Cruise Missile

The Kh-55 is a Soviet air-launched subsonic cruise missile developed by the Raduga design bureau and entering service in 1984, designed to be carried by long-range Soviet bombers such as the Tu-95 and Tu-160 and to fly at low altitude toward its target using an inertial guidance system periodically corrected against terrain features, a technique called terrain contour matching, to achieve high accuracy over very long range while remaining difficult for enemy radar to detect. Its long range, roughly comparable to that of contemporary American cruise missiles such as the Tomahawk, allowed Soviet, and later Russian, bombers to strike distant targets from well outside the range of most air-defense systems protecting the launching aircraft itself, a capability central to Cold War nuclear deterrence doctrine on both sides. Various updated derivatives of the Kh-55 family, carrying conventional rather than nuclear warheads, remain in active Russian air force service and have been used operationally in Russia's wars against Ukraine.