ALKALI: The First Soviet AAM Broke Missile Design Conventions (But No Records)

The Alkali was the first wholly-Soviet engineered air-to-air missile. Having been developed in isolation from Western ideas, it incorporates a number of original design ideas, none of which could be said to have been successful. Even so, it is an interesting weapon and served in the Warsaw Pact Air Forces on three generations of fighters and into the 1970s.

[@cukrrak8187]

A note on the Alkali series - they could also be used as air to ground missiles, the later developed dedicated A2G missile Kh-66 was basically modified RS-2US.

[@alex3261]

14:40 -I took that picture, 30 years ago!

[@ptonpc]

Very cool :) Can you tell us about the circumstances?

[@retr0_fps]

@@ptonpcyes , please

[@dragonbutt]

Congratulations on being old lol

[@babboon5764]

You're Indian?

[@midnattsol6207]

@@babboon5764 it's a romanian one, look at the tail

[@thomas316]

3:20 Wasn't this an episode of StarTrek where they set photon torpedoes to go in a helical or spiral pattern to find a cloaked ship?

[@yester8039]

Common search pattern for torpedoes to find submarines since the cold war tbh

[@RCAvhstape]

Balance of Terror was the episode name. IIRC the "pattern" they laid down with the photon torpedoes wasn't described in detail, but it felt like it was an obvious analog to a depth charge pattern used on subs in WWII by destroyers.

[@RaderizDorret]

You're thinking of Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country where they modified a torpedo with gaseous anomaly detection sensors to go after a Bird of Prey that could fire while cloaked

[@mikepette4422]

I've always had a bit of fascination with the design of the Alkali. Because It looks kinda cool with its very different shape from western missiles of the same vintage I always wanted more info on these things and I never seem to find enough but this video really gave me some new insights. Well done !

[@bigblue6917]

They always made me think of those old Sci Fi magazine illustrations.

[@SuppressedOfficial]

I used to binge Wings on the Discovery Channel, back before it became all aliens all the time or whatever. Your channel is really scratching an itch for me.

[@cmdredstrakerofshado1159]

Thank you for this very thorough video on the Alkali. I have seen it mention in several books on soviet era fighters but never explained in detail. A+++ grade video my knowledge on cold war era Soviet Air to Air missiles has been greatly expanded today 👍😁.

[@mister_fjk1972]

Excellent content on some of the more obscure Soviet cold-war era weapons. Look forward to seeing more!!!

[@EATSxBABIES]

Comparing the Alkali to the Sparrow doesnt seem like the best comparison. Aim 4 Falcon or R530 Matra seem like much better parallels.

[@dubsy1026]

The original Sparrow is contemporary and has the same guidance (beam riding), it's fairly different to the later Sparrows which makes the comparison seem odd. Neither of the two missiles you name are beam riders, and the R530 is from a fair bit later.

[@blessthismessss]

He compares the Sparrow *One* with the Alkali here, which is perfectly well-founded. most people know the Sparrow in its Sparrow II or III forms, which have proper guidance autopilots and advanced capabilities compared to this, a beam-rider which wholly relies on one of the most simplest and rudimentary forms of guidance. but the Sparrow I actually used this too, waaaay back in the beginning of its life. a beam-riding design that kind of flies more similarly to high-speed ATGMs than that of any other type of A2A missile

[@dubsy1026]

Holding out for a Fireflash vid

[@Barabel22]

I’ve seen contradicting info as to whether it entered service or not, around 250-400 were produced(that includes test missiles), and its launch aircraft was the Swift. Maybe never official service, but could have been used if necessary.

[@cristiangarces5832]

I have always had questions about this missile, having my favorite KZbinr make a video on the subject is like a divine gift, thank you very much!

[@GenPatton0043]

Love your work on classic weapons like this, keep it up!👍👍

[@jonathanhudak2059]

This was great! it still amazes me how missile designs were thought up in the 1950s and developed. Very cool Cold War era stuff, love your channel! 😊

[@johnshepherd9676]

Nice shot of Jimmy Stewart.

[@randomexcessmemories4452]

Really interesting video on an oft-overlooked part of aviation history! Are you using some sort of noise suppression on your vocals? They're kind of muffled and inconsistently cut out at the starts and ends of some words. It made some parts hard to understand.

[@cheekibreeki4638]

Great as I have come to expect. Cheers.

[@warhawk4494]

Great video.on a obscure missile

[@cliffalcorn2423]

Great job, thank you.

[@Christian762]

Loving the Cold War era stuff on your channel

[@richardwales9674]

Good video, enjoyed it. 🙂

[@bigblue6917]

I remember watching film footage in the 1970's of Soviet fighters simultaneously firing a heatseeking and radar guided missile at a target. The claim for doing this was that the NATO pilot would not be able to deal with both at the same time. What I did notice was how often the second missile shot across in front of the fighter as it locked onto the first missile before acquiring the target. Must have been a few nervous moments for the pilot when he pressed the fire button.

[@TyrannoJoris_Rex]

Thought they fired the heat-seeker before the radar-homer to so that wouldn't happen

[@georgeboyred]

Can you do a video on the AIM-4 Falcon? I sort of understand why it failed when up against the AIM-9, but not so much the AIM-7 and what made so different to it's rival missiles, did it really have no future, was it a technical dead end?

[@RaderizDorret]

The Falcons weren't a dead end. They eventually evolved into the Phoenix

[@MemorialRifleRange]

Thank-you

[@rafaelaldana1503]

Excellent!!!

[@Sturminfantrist]

Built a MiG-17 with Radar and these Alkali`s in the 90s, thinK it was SMER`s 1:48 MiG-17 PF or PFU. Good Video wish to see more Vids about aircraft Missiles, Guns/Gunpods ect and big soviet PVO interceptors like the Su-15

[@thegreyhound1073]

I love to see a video on the yak-25

[@nicholasmaude6906]

I wonder if a video has been done about the AA-3 Anab?

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

It occurred to me while watching this video this rocket would make an interesting scale subject for model or amateur rocketry.

[@carloshenriquealvesdossant8855]

The Su-9 "Fishpot B" also used AA-1.

[@awathompson]

Good job, Ruth has always been a great book to study. The Hebrew word sata (h8354) basically means to drink but can mean to get drunk, interesting observation is that in the Septuagint drinking is absent but just says "his heart was content"

[@rags417]

The reason that this missile wasn't exported is because no other nation had the problem of how to stop a high altitude strategic bomber on a nuclear strike mission.

[@babboon5764]

Hard to avoid a suspicion the REASON their missiles were never supplied to client states was to ensure NATO never discovered quite how limited they were and how relatively easily they could be evaded?

[@karoltakisobie6638]

Do you have a program about nuclear bombs used on Soviet fighters like Mig-21?

[@ralphe5842]

In other words the Soviets had a lot to worry about

[@TheGranicd]

They had other missiles at the time. like K-8

[@SMGJohn]

According to CIA evaluation of the 1960s and 1988, NATO had the most to worry about because they would not win a war against the Warsaw pact, two times did CIA recommend their nuclear scorched earth tactics, to turn Europe into nothing so the Reds would not capture anything of value. Twice was this strategy rejected.

[@Damian-03x3]

Cool video, but it would be nice if you used the correct measurement system, so people who don't have a thing for feet could understand it better.

[@pjotrtje0NL]

0:21 Does anybody know what air base this is?

[@thesenate9919]

Could you please include metric units.

[@miquelescribanoivars5049]

13:50 According to István Toperczer latest book on VPAF MiG-21 operations, a number of unsuccessful launches (around 14) was performed throught April and May of 1966, without any success.

[@Archie2c]

Hence boresight the radar not scan that way the radar rides right in.

[@jakobole]

Glad I'm not number 2 taking off :)

[@RCAvhstape]

It looks like a baby V2 with some extra thingies attached to it.

[@koskok2965]

Maybe after one too many pints, viewed through the empty glass stained by the beer.

[@nodirips_8537]

1:17 Stalin died in March 1953

[@wonjez3982]

0:00 is a jet assited take off? probably with hydrogen peroxide?

[@edwardpate6128]

I think rather than comparing it with the AIM-7 Sparrow a better comparison would be with the AIM-4 Falcon.

[@TyrannoJoris_Rex]

The Sparrow 1 was a beam-rider. Falcons never had such a guidance system

[@johnstirling6597]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[@onkelmicke9670]

Sound quality is rather worse than usual?

[@AndreasGlad-rq7vx]

Miss-ile indeed....

[@mikepette4422]

I see what you did there.

[@AndreasGlad-rq7vx]

​@@mikepette4422Yes....i will see myself out...

[@leocompot]

Stalin died 5th March' 53 not May

[@TheKeithvidz]

Read up weapons in general, of soviet AAMs, Alkali amongst. Suave how you present information.

[@MikeBracewell]

You need to check your facts before making your videos. Loads of basic errors here & why on earth you'd compare a 1st generation AA missile, like the Alkali, against a 2nd generation Sparrow missile (which didn't enter service until 1958), God only knows? The Sparrow, BTW was never a beam-rider but semi-active guided. It's a very different & more effective type of guidance. Look it up.

[@jfv2312]

The first variant of the Sparrow, the Sparrow I (later re-designated AIM-7A, but it was already out of service) was beam-riding, with the option of slaving the missile to the radar sight. It was used in a few US Navy aircraft in the mid-late 1950s

[@cheekibreeki4638]

Why would you post something that you could so easily verify as false?

[@ashestodust2313]

The first sparrow was beam riding. Look it up.

[@RCAvhstape]

You need to check your facts before posting comments. The early Sparrow 1 was a beam rider. Look it up. (I admit, I'm being a dick here, but it's kind of funny.)

[@MikeBracewell]

@@jfv2312 you're talking about the AAM-N-2 Sparrow (referred, to as the Sparrow 1, once the AIM-7 Sparrow II entered service). Although it had a similar configuration, the AAM-N-2 was, indeed a beam-rider & a very different weapon to the Sparrow II (which is clearly the version referred to in the video - why else claim it was so superior to the AA1?) The Sparrow 1 was deployed for a very limited time & was no more effective than the K-5 Alkali. It guidance was just as unreliable & it was, certainly more expensive to produce. Viewed as barely acceptable for service deployment, only 2000 were produced before the much superior Sparrow 2 entered the scene in 58.