MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. The upgrade of the world’s most powerful long-range anti-tank missile, the Khrizantema, will boost its capability to pierce screened armor plates and active defense suites mounted on heavy armor, Editor-in-Chief of the Independent Military Review magazine Dmitry Litovkin told TASS on Friday.

"The upgrade of the missile’s warhead will make it possible to strike targets shielded by lattice screens," the military expert pointed out. Also, a possible further boost in the supersonic missile’s already high speed will enable it to pierce active protection suites like the Arena system more effectively, he added.

"The most important thing is that the weapon fires a supersonic missile, which short-range air defense systems normally even do not spot, the military expert said, noting the Khrizantema missile’s capabilities to fight battlefield air defenses, if mounted on helicopters.

"In the close-in area, the potential of a Mi-28NM strike gunship is by a factor higher as it is capable of wiping out enemy air defenses without entering the engagement area," he stressed.

It is also hard for electronic warfare systems to fight the Khrizantema missile because "it cannot be either intercepted or jammed," he emphasized.

"The missile’s control and aiming system is Russia’s know-how," he said.

Advantage for helicopters

The integration of the Khrizantema most powerful land troop anti-tank missile into the armament suites of the domestic Mi-28NM and Ka-52M attack helicopters will expand the list of engaged targets, Editor-in-Chief of the National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko told TASS.

"If mounted on helicopters, the missile will expand the list of engaged targets and boost the combat capabilities of advanced strike platforms, such as the Mi-28 and the Ka-52, in any case, this is a promising development area," the military expert emphasized.

The process of mounting these systems on airborne carriers will be further perfected and fine-tuned, he vowed.

"It is obvious that if the Design Bureau of Machine-Building (part of the High Precision Weapons Company within the state tech corporation Rostec) engages in upgrading its particular systems, they expect that this effort will be financed or has already been financed," the expert stressed.

The Khrizantema anti-tank missile also boasts commercial and export potential, Korotchenko pointed out. "The market determines, among other things, the potential demand for particular options of modernizing specific weapon systems and armaments," the military expert said.

Chief Designer of the Design Bureau of Machine-Building Valery Kashin told TASS at the EDEX 2021 international defense show in Cairo on December 2, that the company was upgrading the Khrizantema, one of the world’s most powerful anti-tank missiles.

Today, the Khrizantema makes up part of the Khrizantema-S self-propelled anti-tank missile system and is being adapted for the latest combat helicopters, in particular, the Mi-28NM and the Ka-52M gunships. The missile can accelerate to 650 m/s, that is more than double the speed of sound. The missile is capable of striking targets at a distance of 400 meters to 6 km. The road-mobile system has a rate of fire of up to four missiles per minute and an ammunition load of 15 missiles.