WHAT IT IS
Kalibr is not one missile. It is Novator’s (OKB Novator, Almaz-Antey) modular 533 mm family that shares a booster, a folding-wing airframe, and a UKSK / 3S14 vertical cell or a submarine torpedo tube, then splits into three jobs: anti-ship (3M54), land-attack (3M14), and anti-submarine rocket-torpedo (91R). Russian service name is Kalibr (3K14 complex). Export catalogue name is Club. NATO splits the headlines: SS-N-27 Sizzler for the anti-ship articles with a sprint stage, SS-N-30A for the subsonic land-attack 3M14.
The political fact is the land-attack round. A Buyan-M corvette in the Caspian can put a 450 kg warhead into Syria or Ukraine without a carrier battle group. That is why small ships grew eight-cell UKSK farms in the 2010s, and why “Kalibr” in wartime reporting almost always means 3M14, not the Mach-2.9 ship-killer.
Land cousins sit on Iskander trucks as 9M728 / 9M729 (see the 9K720 article). Same design bureau, same idea, different treaty and launcher politics. Do not treat the truck round as a drop-in 3M14.
NAMING
K = submarine tube (контейнер / корабль подводный in shop talk). T = surface ship, usually UKSK / 3S14 with a longer booster can (торный / надводный). E = export, MTCR-capped near 300 km. 1 suffix on 3M54 = no separating supersonic dart; all-subsonic anti-ship with a heavier warhead. Club-S submarine, Club-N ship VLS, Club-T coastal truck, Club-A air — export packages, not separate physics.
COMMON AIRFRAME
Body diameter 533 mm so it fits a standard Russian torpedo tube. Length 6.2 m for the short tube / export land-attack and 3M54E1 class, about 8.2 m for the three-stage anti-ship 3M54, about 8.9 m for the ship VLS articles that carry the extra boost motor. Launch mass roughly 1,300–2,300 kg depending on booster and warhead. Fold-out wings after leaving the water or the cell. Cruise motor on the aero rounds is a small turbofan (TRDD-50B class in Russian notes). 91R family is solid rocket only and throws a light torpedo, not a cruise airframe for the whole flight.
Guidance on 3M14: inertial + GLONASS + terrain / scene matching (TERCOM / DSMAC family). Anti-ship 3M54 adds an active radar seeker on the terminal body. CEP claims for land-attack are “under 10 m” in MoD language; treat as brochure.
3M54 — ANTI-SHIP
The distinctive article is a three-stage sea-skimmer. Booster gets it flying. Turbofan carries it at Mach 0.6–0.8, 10–20 m over water. Near the target the front body kicks off a solid-fuel dart that runs Mach 2.9 at about 5 m, 200 kg penetrating HE. That sprint is the “Sizzler” problem for a ship’s last-ditch CIWS: the incoming radar picture changes late. Domestic range estimates for 3M54K/T sit around 440–660 km. Export 3M54E is published at 220 km.
3M54E1 / TE1 / K1 / T1 drop the dart, keep a 400 kg class warhead, stay subsonic, stretch export range to 300 km and domestic anti-ship estimates toward 660 km. Same family, different endgame.
3M14 — LAND ATTACK
All-subsonic cruise missile. 3M14K tube length ~6.2 m; 3M14T ship cell ~8.9 m with booster. Warhead about 450 kg HE-fragmentation in the standard conventional article; nuclear option exists in Russian service writing (yields in the “several kilotons” class in secondary tables). Flight over land 50–150 m, over water ~20 m. Speed Mach 0.8. Export 3M14E is the 300 km MTCR round. Domestic 3M14K/T is the long stick: open estimates 1,500–2,500 km, some German/Russian rows 1,600–2,600 km for the ship article. Syria shots from the Caspian were about 1,500 km on the published tracks. That is the number that made a 949-tonne Buyan-M a strategic shooter.
Ukrainian teardown notes in 2026 reported a cluster warhead appearing on some 3M14s (Kh-101-like submunitions) after years of unitary HE. Electronics mixes have swung between foreign parts and attempted import substitution; debris does not always match the press release.
Kalibr-M is a named stretch study toward ~4,500 km. Treat as development talk, not a counted fleet round.
91R — ROCKET-TORPEDO
91R1 / 91RE1 from a submarine tube: ~50 km, drops an APR-3M class light homing torpedo. 91RT / 91RTE2 from a ship cell: ~40 km, MPT-UM / similar payload. Ballistic pop-up, not a 2,000 km cruise. Same 533 mm hole in the ship, different magazine role.
LAUNCHERS
UKSK / 3S14 universal VLS — eight cells on Buyan-M (pr. 21631), Karakurt (22800), Gepard-K (11661K Dagestan), Gorshkov (22350), Grigorovich (11356), Gremyashchy (20385). Submarine 533 mm tubes: Improved Kilo (636.3), Lada, Akula, Oscar II (as converted), Yasen / Yasen-M (plus their own VLS farm). Coastal Club-T / Club-M trucks exist on the export sheet. Air Club-A was offered; it is not the wartime Ukrainian shot.
Black Sea Fleet launch density fell as Ukraine sank or boxed in Kalibr ships (Moskva was not the Kalibr shooter; Buyans, Grigorovich frigates, and Kilos were). Remaining hulls shifted toward Novorossiysk. Caspian and Mediterranean shots were the original proof. Northern and Pacific Yasens carry the quiet magazine.
COMBAT USE
7 October 2015: Caspian Flotilla — frigate Dagestan plus three Buyan-Ms — fired 26 × 3M14T across Iran and Iraq into Syria (~1,500 km). U.S. officials said four fell in Iran; Moscow denied. Submarine shots from the Med followed in December 2015. That was the combat debut of Russian naval land-attack cruise missiles in the post-Soviet navy.
Ukraine from 24 February 2022: opening barrage included on the order of 30 Kalibrs from Black Sea surface ships and Kilos against air bases, SAM, and command. Recurring city and infrastructure shots since (Vinnytsia 14 July 2022 among the named civilian hits). Use continues into 2026 but share of some mass raids has shifted toward Kh-101, Iskander-K, and drones when ships cannot safely leave port. Intercept rates against subsonic sea-skimmers are far better than against 9M723; they are not 100 percent.
OPERATORS
Russia is the only user of the long-range 3M14. Club export (300 km class) has been sold onto Kilos and surface ships to India, Vietnam, Algeria, China-adjacent customers, and others on the Novator brochure. Export and domestic rounds are not interchangeable in range or seeker fit.
WHAT IT IS NOT
It is not Oniks / Yakhont (ramjet anti-ship). It is not Tsirkon. It is not Kh-101 (air-launched, different plant). It is not Granit. 3M54’s Mach 2.9 dart is not a hypersonic glide vehicle. Club is the export sticker, not a second missile.
CAVEATS ON THE NUMBERS
Domestic 3M14 range is an estimate band (1,500–2,500+ km), not a released firing table. 3M54 domestic anti-ship range is likewise estimated. Warhead mass 200 / 400 / 450 kg depends on the article. Production contracts cited in wartime reporting (hundreds of rounds across 2022–24) are secondary leaks, not a public stockpile.
STATUS
In Russian Navy service across four fleets. Still the small-ship long-range land-attack weapon. Still in the Ukraine mix when a Kilo or a surviving Buyan can reach a launch box. UKSK keeps it on every new Russian surface combatant that is not a pure gunboat.
IN ONE SENTENCE
Kalibr is Novator’s 533 mm family — 3M54 Sizzler anti-ship with a Mach-2.9 dart, 3M14 SS-N-30A land-attack out to about 1,500–2,500 km, and 91R rocket-torpedoes — the missile that let a Caspian corvette hit Syria and a Black Sea Kilo hit Ukraine from the same UKSK cell.