Kh-80
Soviet supersonic nuclear-armed cruise missile
The Kh-80 Meteorit-A (GRAU-code: 3M25A, NATO: AS-X-19 Koala), the RK-75 Meteorit-N (GRAU: 3M25N, NATO: SS-NX-24 Scorpion) and the P-750 Meteorit-M (Russian: П-750 Гром, GRAU: 3М25, NATO: SSC-X-5) was a Soviet cruise missile which was supposed to replace subsonic intermediate range missiles in Soviet inventory.
Development of three variants of this cruise missile was authorized on 9 December 1976. The Meteorit-M strategic version would be deployed from Project 667M submarines with 12 launchers per boat. The air-launched Meteorit-A would be launched from Tu-95 bombers. The land-based version was designated Meteorit-N. The missile was also sometimes referred to by the code-name Grom. The first test launch, on 20 May 1980, was unsuccessful, as were the next three attempts. The first successful flight did not come until 16 December 1981. The first launch from a 667M Andromeda submarine took place on 26 December 1983 from the Barents Sea.
The missile was designed by Chelomei at NPO Mashinostroeniye and designated the SSC-X-5 GLCM by the US Department of Defense. The turbojet-powered missile would cruise at Mach 2.5 to Mach 3.0 at 20 km (max 24) altitude over its 3,000 km range.
“Kh-80” enters the record as soviet supersonic nuclear-armed cruise missile. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kh-80, Soviet and supersonic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6581998. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1980, 1981 and 1983.
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