[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.

[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.

[5] Starting in April 1986, during the second Battle of Zhawar, Kh-25MLs were used by Soviet Su-25 Frogfoots from the 378th OShAP (Independent Shturmovik Aviation Regiment) to attack Mujahideen cave entrances used as shelters and weapons storage facilities.

[10] During the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, on August 2, 1990 an Iraqi Air Force Sukhoi Su-22 from the No.109 Squadron (based at as-Shoibiyah AB) fired a single Kh-25MP anti-radar variant against a Kuwaiti MIM-23B I-HAWK SAM site at Bubiyan Island that had earlier downed another Su-22 from the same unit and a MiG-23BN from the 49th Squadron.

[11] Russian Air Force Su-25s employed the Kh-25 in its two Chechen campaigns for attacks on fixed positions, such as mortars and bunkers.

Their use was not widespread in the First War as was in the Second, mainly due to differences in weather conditions and, probably, the need to keep a strategic reserve of stockpiles shortly after the fall of the USSR.

[12] Laser-guided Kh-25s were employed by Su-24 swing wing strike aircraft against anti-Assad rebels in Syria.