KH-25 ML

 Based on an air-to-air missile, the beam-riding Kh-66 had been the Soviet Union's first air-to-ground missile for tactical aircraft, entering service in 1968.^[6] However it proved difficult to use in practice as the launch aircraft had to dive towards the target. A version with radio-command guidance, the Kh-23, was first tested in 1968 but problems with the guidance system meant that it would not enter service for another five years.^[7] So in 1971 work began on a version with a semi-active laser seeker, which became the Kh-25.^[6]This was initially known in the West as the Kh-23L.^[8] State testing began on 24 November 1974, and the Kh-25 entered production in 1975.^[6]

Work began on an anti-radar missile derived from the Kh-66^[5] in 1972, using a passive radar seeker and SUR-73 autopilot.^[6] The long-range Kh-31 anti-radar missile came out of the same project.^[6] The Kh-27 began state testing on a MiG-27 on 8 August 1975^[6] but did not enter service until 2 September 1980.^[6] It was assigned the NATO reporting nameAS-12 'Kegler' and in effect it replaced the much heavier Kh-28 (AS-9 'Kyle').^[5]

In 1973 Victor Bugaiskii was appointed head engineer of the bureau and he started work on combining the Kh-23M, Kh-25 and Kh-27 into a single modular system to reduce costs and improve tactical flexibility.^[6] This was completed by the end of 1978,^[6] resulting in the Kh-25MP (anti-radar), Kh-25ML (laser-guided) and Kh-25MR (radio-guided) family. NATO continued to refer to these as the AS-12 and AS-10 respectively, even though they could now be switched by a simple change of seeker head.

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