The missile is a modular system with five versions: two anti-shipping types, one for land attack and two anti-submarine types. The missile is designed to share common parts between the surface and submarine-launched variants but each missile consists of different components, for example, the booster. The missile can be launched from a surface ship using a
vertical launching system (VLS).
It has a booster with thrust vectoring capability. The missile launched from a submarine
torpedo tube has no need for such an addition but has a conventional booster instead. The air launched version is held in a container that is dropped as the missile launches, detaching from the container.
There are several claims about the maximum range of Kalibr land attack versions in use by Russia. The
U.S. Department of Defense estimates its range at 1,400 km (870 mi), and
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu put its range at "almost 1,500 km (930 mi)." Following its first operational firing in October 2015,
Russian Ministry of Defence statements suggested a range of 2,000 km (1,200 mi), while a December 2015
Office of Naval Intelligence report gathered a number of Russian statements projecting ranges between 1,500-2,500 km (1,600 mi).
[2][6]
Discrepancies in range values may be political declarations for strategic effect,
[2] or potentially longer 2,500 km-range claims could be associated with a
thermonuclear armed variant while shorter 1,500 km-range estimates are for the conventionally armed missile.
[6]
Launch of production of a submarine-variant of the 3M14TE Kalibr-NK called the Kalibr-PL missile occurred in 2012, according to state television news (broadcast of 11.10.2015).
[7] Details of this version – a maximum speed of Mach 3, a range of 4,000 km, basing in the air, on land, on water and under water.
[8] The missile can make in-flight maneuvers 147 times or more in any direction, it has a minimum height of 10 meters, an average one of 20 – 50 meters (up to 1000 m), it will automatically follow terrain, it can be controlled in flight.
[9]
Russia has improved the targeting system of its ship- and submarine-launched Kalibr cruise missiles to improve their ability to conduct time sensitive attacks. Defence Minister
Sergei Shoigu revealed the development, which was initiated as a result of combat experience in Syria, in an interview with the
Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper on 22 September 2019.
[10][11]
