The 38MTE and all mentions of the IR seeker options were recently removed from KTRV and Rosoboronexport. The option was still being advertized until recently, but no actual proof it was produced or tested exist.
As some people have already pointed out, a brochure can include options that do not yet work or exist simply for the sake of seeking out additional funding for development, which is likely the case with all non-SALH versions of the Kh-38M. It seems these efforts fell through and the alternative guidance options were abandonned.
Also I would like to remind you that every claim about T version being tested falls apart under some news we were getting about 2-3 years ago. russia is unable to produce thermal imagers on their own. So outside of their stockpile they don’t have anything else. Do you think they would really start strapping them to missiles?
Seems like KTRV removed all military products (and not just Kh-38MTE) from their website (Most likely to avoid sanctions on their personnel and management; Some other manufacturers have done the same).
Yes, the page is titled “MLE” but it’s because they have only one page for all four variants.
MAE and MKE don’t have their own page either. And MKE which is the GNSS guided version is even simpler than MLE … So I don’t think anyone can claim that they couldn’t or didn’t want to manufacture it …
Nah they can produce thermal imagers, theyre just of inferior quality to french ones they had access to.
What can be said though is that its highly dubious the russians would be wasting 3rd gen thermal imagers on a one time use Kh-38MT as the game implies.
Its actually a good explanation as to why the option for the IIR guidance option may have been removed.
That’s a plausible explanation and Russia (as with many other countries) have a history of exporting more expensive tech that they don’t use in their own service (at least initially).
But mass production or mass use is hardly a criteria for something being in the game …
Thats super weird, looks like the same website, but mine has the mentions removed and yours doesnt 🤔
I wonder whats going on there. Inwonder if yours is an older version of the site, since thats how I remember the webpage looking like before the recent changes.
The point of this whole post is that there is no proof of there having ever been production at all, never mind any proof of a functionnal missile being tested.
A brochure and mockups is not evidence of production, even limited, and nobody has yet provided evidence of any actual functional Kh-38MT having been produced.
If you mean that’s what most people are claiming, I can believe that, given how propagandized people are
But I don’t think there’s any doubt that Russia could make the thermal variant just fine
Whether it would be deemed suitable for their own service (in terms of cost/capability and production rate etc) is another story …
