6 hypersonic missiles shot down in one night? Hard to believe so I’ll wait for visual confirmation
FYI, the wars of Moscow on Kyiv go back almost a millennium back. Muscovites took pride that in 1169, their Suzdal prince allegedly “destroyed Kyiv as had never been done before”. (Although this may have never happened in fact. “Gardariki, Ukraine” e-book does a good job presenting new facts about the two realms. It has a lot of Viking stories in it too.)
Common hypersonic L
Ah, the formidable and unstoppable Russian hypersonic wonder weapons in action!
Lol
This is just BS from US media.
The hype around hypersonic isn’t necessarily about them being hypersonic. The V2 rocket was hypersonic. The hype is about highly manoeuvrable hypersonic missiles. Those are very difficult to intercept since they can change their trajectory. A ballistic missile follows a ballistic curve, and is predictable.
Seems like the main benefit of the kinzhal missile was that the Russians were able to claim that they have produced a hypersonic missile. When in reality it’s just a regular ballistic missile.
7 comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh-47M2_Kinzhal
This is their most-vaunted hypersonic missile – part of the recently introduced [‘doomsday’ arsenal](https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/22/is-russias-doomsday-missile-fake-news-putin-hypersonic-nuclear-cruise-moscow-kremlin/) Putin has been boasting about
It doesn’t bode for russian technology well if all 6 were downed by NATO anti-missile defence systems (likely [PAC-3 Patriot systems](https://asc.army.mil/web/portfolio-item/ms-pac-3_mse/)). An[ earlier interception](https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-05-06/ukraine-downs-russian-hypersonic-missile-with-u-s-patriot-system) of the Kinzhal was done using the PAC-3
Russia is estimated to be capable of creating 1 to 3 of these missiles a month at a cost of $10m each.
Russia started the ‘Special Operations’ with an estimated 500 older-style Kaliber missiles – less than 150 left.
The Kinzhal is just an Iskander adapted for aircraft launch – so calling it hypersonic is [‘stretching the truth’](https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a43804177/russias-kinzhal-missile-is-not-hypersonic/)
Even the experts doubt it’s [a real hypersonic missile](https://www.aofs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/039-STC-20-rev.-2-fin-HYPERSONIC-WEAPONS.pdf) by the official definition.
6 hypersonic missiles shot down in one night? Hard to believe so I’ll wait for visual confirmation
FYI, the wars of Moscow on Kyiv go back almost a millennium back. Muscovites took pride that in 1169, their Suzdal prince allegedly “destroyed Kyiv as had never been done before”. (Although this may have never happened in fact. “Gardariki, Ukraine” e-book does a good job presenting new facts about the two realms. It has a lot of Viking stories in it too.)
Common hypersonic L
Ah, the formidable and unstoppable Russian hypersonic wonder weapons in action!
Lol
This is just BS from US media.
The hype around hypersonic isn’t necessarily about them being hypersonic. The V2 rocket was hypersonic. The hype is about highly manoeuvrable hypersonic missiles. Those are very difficult to intercept since they can change their trajectory. A ballistic missile follows a ballistic curve, and is predictable.
Seems like the main benefit of the kinzhal missile was that the Russians were able to claim that they have produced a hypersonic missile. When in reality it’s just a regular ballistic missile.