The satellite is designed to identify missile launches using infrared telescopes.

[1] Kosmos 2224 was launched from Site 200/39 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

A Proton-K carrier rocket with a DM-2 upper stage was used to perform the launch, which took place at 12:45 UTC on 17 December 1992.

[2] The United States Space Command assigned it the Satellite Catalog Number 22269.

[2][3] It was operational for 77 months, which was the longest of the US-KMO series until Kosmos 2379.