The most powerful supersonic cruise missile of the Soviet Union still exists.

 The most powerful supersonic cruise missile of the Soviet Union still exists.

The P-500 Bazalt is a late Cold War-era anti-ship missile of Soviet-made. It is a very large supersonic anti-ship missile that was specifically designed to engage aircraft carriers and their escorts far over the horizon mean to counter bigger size American carrier forces.

 The P-500 arms a number of submarines and large surface combatants in Soviet armed services. In the West, it is known under the NATO reporting name " Sandbox".

 The P-1000 Vulkan is a further development of the P-500.(we will talk about it last)

The design of the P-500 is based on the earlier P-35 Progress.

 The P-500 has a cigar-shaped body with two swept wings and an air intake for the turbojet on the bottom. The warhead and guidance system are mounted in the nose.

 Solid propellant boosters provide initial velocity for the turbojet sustainer engine. 

The main differences between the P-35 and P-500 lie in the areas of propulsion and target acquisition. The P-500 flies much faster and has a longer range. Combined with the ability to be launched in a pack that coordinates target distribution its ability to penetrate the air defense pocket of carrier battle groups is vastly increased.

Since the P-500 has a range far beyond the horizon the launch platforms require target information from another platform. This can be a surface vessel, fixed-wing aircraft, or helicopter with target acquisition equipment.

 The missile itself uses inertial navigation towards the target area and radar homing in the terminal phase. The P-500 is believed to use passive radar homing at first and active radar homing before impact. A unique feature of the P-500 is the ability to exchange target information with other nearby P-500 missiles. A pack of P-500 missiles is able to distribute targets. Individual missiles can pop up to provide up-to-date target information in the final stage.

The P-1000 Vulkan is a further development of the P-500 and became operational in 1987. 

The name "Vulkan" is Russian for "volcano". The upgrades are focused on an increased range while retaining the same dimensions and launch infrastructure.

The increased range is achieved by a massive increase in fuel, while the weight of other components is reduced at the same time. The conventional high explosive fragmentation warhead is reduced from 1.000 to 500 kg and the metal body is replaced by a titanium one. The launch booster rockets use thrust vectoring in order to reduce the fuel consumption of the main engine spent on initial maneuvering.

In theory, the P-1000 has nearly double the range of the P-500. In practice, the range is increased to 700 km since much of the fuel is spent at going to sea level in an earlier stage of the flight. This reduces its vulnerability to long-range air defense significantly.

The development of laser-guided "Vulkan LK" also took place from 1987 - 1989 but was eventually canceled.

The P-500 is a serious threat to surface vessels. It has a range of 550 km and flies at Mach 2.5 at altitude and Mach 2.0 in the sea-skimming terminal phase. 

The warhead is either a 1.000 kg conventional or 350 kt nuclear warhead.

 The P-500 is difficult to intercept in the terminal phase. Its supersonic speed and low altitude leave a small engagement envelope. The main drawback of the P-500 is that it remains at a high altitude is a large portion of its flight profile. This makes it vulnerable to interception by fighter aircraft and long-range SAM systems.

 The improved P-1000 Vulkan and its successor the P-700 Granit remedy this issue.

Source of information :

Wikipedia 

weapon system