The Kh-28 was succeeded by the Kh-58 in 1978, which has similar speed and range but replaces the dual-fuel rocket motor with a much safer RDTT solid propellant.

However, in the mid-1970s they had developed the successful Kh-25 family of short-range air-to-surface missiles, including the Kh-25MP (AS-12 "Kegler") for anti-radar use.

Then four air intakes open up and as in the Franco-German ANS/ANF the empty rocket case becomes the combustion chamber of a kerosene-fuelled ramjet, which takes it beyond Mach 4.

[16][17][18] According to senior sources of the Ukrainian Air Force, some 9K33 Osa and 9K37 Buk systems were destroyed by Kh-31P and Kh-58 missiles during the war.

[19] An active/passive air-to-air version for use against slow-moving support aircraft, a so-called "AWACS killer", was announced at the 1992 Moscow air show with 200 km (110 nmi; 120 mi) range.

[6] That would be less than the 300–400 kilometres (160–220 nmi; 190–250 mi) promised by the Vympel R-37 (AA-13 'Arrow') and Novator R-172 missiles, but a Kh-31 derivative could be carried by a wider range of aircraft.

However this may have been mere propaganda; in 2004 the Tactical Missiles Corporation "emphatically denied" that it had ever worked on an air-to-air version of the Kh-31.

[28] In 2005 rumours emerged of a Russian "AWACS-killer missile" based on the Kh-31A anti-shipping model, and of the Chinese adapting the YJ-91, derived from the Kh-31P, for the same purpose.

[7] In 2017, a representative of the Mikoyan company claimed that an air-to-air variant of the Kh-31 was in development, intended to equip the MiG-35,[29] but this is not confirmed.