Kalibr cruise missile creator dies
Russia’s top military rocket scientist, Pavel Kamnev, has died at the age of 86, the country’s leading missile builder Almaz-Antey Corporation announced on Monday.
Born in 1937 in the Caspian city of Makhachkala, Kamnev had worked in Russia’s aircraft industry since the 1960s. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he headed the Novator Design Bureau, where he was tasked with creating new missiles for the country’s military.
The engineer continued to work in the industry despite his advanced age, chairing Novator’s board of directors and serving as the lead scientist of the bureau’s parent company, the Almaz-Antey Corporation, at the time of his death.
“Pavel Kamnev was one of the pillars of the domestic military-industrial complex, a scientist in the field of rocket science,” the company said in a statement.
It added that Kamnev “took an active part in the development of many missile systems” and “carried out the scientific and technical management of the most important work on the creation and modernization of dozens of missile weapons of various classes for the Ground Forces, the Navy, the Air Force, and for the country’s anti-missile and air defense systems.”
Arguably the most well-known weapon invented due to Kamenev is the long-range Kalibr cruise missile. The high-precision munitions are carried by Russian warships and submarines, as well as used by the country’s long-range aviation.
The missile has seen action during Russia’s anti-terrorism campaign in Syria, as well as its ongoing military operation in neighboring Ukraine, with the precision munitions repeatedly used to strike high-priority targets.
