8/3/2023 0 Comments Toukiden 2 weapons typesThe arrival of MIM-104 Patriot missile batteries donated by Germany and the United States in Ukraine this April undoubtedly improves the odds Kyiv's air defenses will knock down Kinzhals. It's believed around 50 Kinzhals in total have been launched at Ukraine since March 2022. This large-scale assault knocked out electricity in many regions and killed six civilians. Use of the hypersonic missiles ramped up substantially in March 2023, when six out of 84 missiles hurled at Ukrainian targets were Kinzhals. Then, that fall, small numbers of Kinzhals began to be launched in concert with subsonic cruise missiles and kamikaze drones as part of Russia’s new sustained strategic bombing campaign targeting Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities. The weapon made its combat debut in Ukraine, with strikes reported on a fuel and subterranean weapons depots in March 2022, followed by sporadic attacks in subsequent months. While Ukrainian air defenses allegedly shoot down well over half of incoming cruise missiles and kamikaze drones, the Kinzhals come in to too fast for Kyiv’s Soviet-era defenses to respond in time. Kinzhal’s primary military value to Russia in its conflict with Ukraine has been the difficulty in intercepting the ultra-fast weapon, as even commented upon by President Biden. Still, the Iskander (and thus likely Kinzhal) can perform some evasive maneuvers and release decoys to foil air defenses, in contrast to prior-generation Russian tactical missiles. Nor is it a hypersonic cruise missile with propulsion to sustain near-maximum speeds for a prolonged period. Furthermore, it is not a highly maneuverable hypersonic glide vehicle-type weapon as is often assumed, and thus relies more on pure speed than maneuverability to penetrate defenses. However, despite assumptions the Kinzhal can carry a nuclear warhead like an Iskander missile, it so far appears to have been deployed only with conventional warheads. While an Iskander has a maximum speed of Mach 5.9 and (officially) a range of 310 miles due to INF treaty restrictions, the Kinzhal's rocket boosters accelerate it up to Mach 10 or higher, and it has a range of 1,200 miles, making it applicable for strikes on NATO targets across Europe and the Mediterranean. How Russia Beat America to the Hypersonic Missile.He noted the Kinzhal had been launched from over Russian airspace by a MiG-31K fighter, and admonished the media for reporting the incident in advance of his confirmation. Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat cast doubt that a Kinzhal was downed, with statement claiming: “There was a possibility of use, but no ballistic missiles were recorded.”īut then on Saturday, Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk finally confirmed on a Telegram post the "historic event": one of the UAF's new Patriot missiles had indeed downed the "unparalleled" Kinzhal. Further imagery is required to fully confirm the type of the missile - but both Iskander and Kinzhal are ballistic missiles which are regarded as extremely difficult to intercept except by modern Western Air Defense systems that are entering service in Ukraine…We are confident in our ID.” Ukraine Weapon Tracker, a respected account known to ID weapons usage, noted: “The debris matches the unitary warhead assembly used in Kh-47M2 & Iskander-series missiles. There was the possibility the downed weapon was instead a land-based Iskander tactical ballistic missile ( also a hypersonic weapon, though less often hyped as such) upon which the Kinzhal is based. Russia’s Kinzhal Missiles Aren’t Really Hypersonic.
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