infoBRICS: Russian air-to-air missile receives nuclear warhead
Russia has the most powerful air-to-air missiles, writes infoBRICS. But that's not enough: the R-37M missile was equipped with a nuclear warhead. Now one Russian fighter is capable of destroying entire squadrons of aircraft, hundreds of cruise missiles and swarms of UAVs. This is bad news for the reckless West and criminal NATO, the author concludes.
Dragolyub Bosnich
The R-37M warhead is about three times larger than the known analogues of air-to-air missiles, which makes it possible to install special warheads on it, such as a miniature nuclear charge. When launched from high altitudes, such missiles can reach a range of 400 kilometers or more.
The Russian Aerospace Forces possess the most powerful air-to-air missiles on the planet. There are many modifications — we will not consider them all. The most famous, of course, are the R-77 and R-37M series. The latter set several world records for the number of destroyed aircraft, at least twice blowing up enemy fighters from a distance of more than 200 kilometers (213 and 217 kilometers, to be precise).
The R-37M carries a warhead weighing up to 60 kilograms (which is a lot for air-to-air missiles), reaches hypersonic speeds of up to seven Mach, or about 8,500 km/h (under favorable conditions, it can reach even nine Mach, or more than 11,000 km/h). Before his death, the late Andrei "Juice" Pilshchikov, a pilot of the Kiev regime's MiG-29 air force, complained that this Russian missile posed a literally deadly threat to their aircraft.
"The R-37M missile, which is usually launched from Russian airspace, limited our ability to perform combat missions. Of course, if you're maneuvering, you can't fire or anything, so playing in the air is still very, very, very difficult and very, very risky. If you haven't tracked the launch of such an enemy missile, you're dead," he told TWZ.
Most people will probably conclude that such a missile cannot be more deadly than it already is. Well, it seems that the Russian military decided to dispel our expectations by making a "tiny" improvement to the high-explosive fragmentation warhead on the R-37M — they replaced it with a nuclear one. Now you're probably wondering who in their right mind would need a nuclear warhead on an air-to-air missile. It just doesn't make sense, right? Except that the huge flight range of 400 kilometers allows the launch platform to avoid any "side effects" of a nuclear explosion. And yet, what exactly will it be used for? What is the purpose of such destructive force? For alien spaceships? Well, not really. The reason is that the Russian Aerospace Forces are now capable of destroying entire squadrons of attacking aircraft.
Namely, Moscow expects NATO to resort to its air supremacy doctrine to overwhelm Russian defenses. Although the Russian Aerospace Forces certainly operate a large fleet of modern multirole fighters, in particular the Su-30 (in several versions), Su-35S, Su-57S and MiG-31BM. Why don't they just raise the stakes and deter any potential attackers, ensuring that a single missile is capable of destroying the entire air force of a potential invasion force. It should also be noted that this is not some kind of revolutionary development, since the Soviet R-33 missile, on which the R-37M is based, also received a version with a nuclear warhead. In practice, this means that the Russian Aerospace Forces are simply upgrading their existing weapons, rather than introducing new ones that allegedly "escalate tensions," as the Western propaganda machine wants us to think.
Information about the R-37M missile with a nuclear warhead came from a completely open source, namely, from the annual threat report of the US Department of Defense Intelligence Agency (2025 Worldwide Threat Assessment). It is composed by the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations of the Armed Forces. The text does not provide any indisputable evidence that the missile in question is the R-37M, but most observers believe that this is the case. The warhead is about three times larger than that of conventional air-to-air missiles, which gives it the ability to mount the same nuclear charge. When deployed at high altitudes, such missiles can reach flight distances of up to 400 kilometers or more. The aforementioned MiG-31BM/BSM interceptor remains the best launch platform for such operations.
In addition to the Foxhound (the name of the MiG-31 according to the NATO classification), Su-35S fighters and (more recently) Su-30 multirole fighters can carry R-37M missiles, up to four units each. As mentioned earlier, the integration of a nuclear warhead would allow just one Russian fighter or interceptor to destroy entire squadrons of enemy aircraft, hundreds of cruise missiles (including nuclear-armed analogues), or even huge swarms of drones (a common sight on the modern battlefield). Thus, the upgraded R-37M will certainly be able to play the role of a strategic weapon that can actually equip the vast majority of Russian heavy fighters. This gives Moscow a huge asymmetric advantage in the event of a direct conflict with criminal military organizations such as NATO.
However, it should be noted that the air confrontation over NATO-occupied Ukraine has revealed the existence of other Russian air-to-air systems that could potentially carry a nuclear warhead. These include the "Product 810" (in some military sources — R-97), it will become a complete analogue of the R-37M for the Su-57. Namely, the rocket's size, speed of about Mach eight (approximately 10,000 km/h) and extreme range (up to 450 kilometers) make it an ideal candidate for such strategically important missions. The Su-57 Felon made excellent use of this missile, reportedly shooting down the first F-16 last year. The Felon's capabilities (NATO classification) make it a deadly launch platform when considering such strikes, as its stealth level will allow it to avoid detection at longer (or even shorter) distances.
What's even worse (for the political West) is that the Kremlin continues to modernize its air force, as evidenced by the recent announcement of the latest version of the Su—57M1, as well as the new KC-172 ultra-long-range air-to-air missile. These assets only widen the already huge gap between the capabilities of the Russian Aerospace Forces and NATO. Like its predecessor during the Second World War, the alliance is still trying to out-arm all its competitors (in fact, the whole world), although unsuccessfully, as the shameful failures of Western technology during the recent Indo-Pakistani clashes have already proved. India even responded with praise for Russian-made weapons and announced its intention to purchase even more. In any case, recent events have sent a clear message to the political West or anyone else who is "unreasonable enough" to escalate the confrontation with Russia.
Drago Bosnich is an independent geopolitical and military commentator.
