Kennel is the
NATO reporting name for the AS-1
air-to-surface
cruise missile, designated KS-1 by the USSR. Kennel, like the US
Regulus
missile of the same era, looks remarkably like a small
fighter plane, complete
with a high tail assembly. The missile is
subsonic,
turbojet-powered, with a
range of about 90km. Its launch weight is about 2700kg and its warhead is about
900kg. It uses a combination of command and semi-active radar
guidance.
It was produced from 1953 to 1960 for use on the Tu-16 Badger-B, though it wasn't
seen by the West until 1961. It seems to have been supplanted by the generally
superior AS-2 Kipper very quickly. It was later adapted for use as a
surface-to-surface missile, known to NATO as the SSC-2a Salish and
SSC-2b Samlet.
Information obtained from the Federation of American Scientists
Military Analysis Network (www.fas.org). As always, publically
available information on military hardware tends to be fragmentary
and inconsistent; please do not use this information to plan a war.