Russia Developing Khishchnik High-Speed Missile

Russia's Elektropribor Design Bureau is developing a high-speed torpedo dubbed Khishchnik (Russian for ‘raptor’) to replace the Shkval underwater anti-ship missile.

The expert Vladimir Tuchkov writes in an article with the Svobodnaya Pressa online news agency. Elektropribor is soon to complete the development of a sophisticated high-speed torpedo, the blog of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) has reported.

The weapon is designed for replacing the famous Shkval capable of accelerating to 200 knots under water, Tass Defense reported last week.  

Elektropribor had applied to participate in 2015 Aircraft Maker of the Year Competition, held by the Union of Aviation Industrialists of Russia (UAIR).

Two applications have been submitted, with one of them dedicated to "the execution of the state defense order for developing components of advanced underwater vehicles."

The application continues, since 2013, the company has been developing and manufacturing prototypes and testing a component of the underwater missile embodying advanced boundary layer control principles.

The type of weapons is called rocket-assisted torpedo, and Elektropribor is developing electrical units for its rocket motor and the control systems.

The NII-24 Research Institute (now the Region State Research and Production Company, a subsidiary of Tactical Missiles Corp.) kicked off Shkval’s development in 1960.