* Russia’s advanced missiles don’t work as well as claimed, the UK Ministry of Defence said.
* Putin once said the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal were “undefeatable” systems.
* In Ukraine they’ve been defeated often, the MOD said — either intercepted or just missed the target.
The significance of this is actually far greater than most people realise. These missiles are the delivery vehicle for Russia’s tactical nukes, the fact the Ukrainian Patriot missiles can reliably down them has two significant implications:
1) Russia’s capability to strike Western countries with tactical nukes is in significant doubt.
2) If Russia were to decide to use nukes against Ukraine they could, again, be unsuccessful, resulting in Russia taking all the geopolitical damage of having *tried* to use a weapon of mass destruction without even succeeding in doing so. This is a pretty huge deterrent again Russia even attempting it.
2 comments
TL;DR:
* Russia’s advanced missiles don’t work as well as claimed, the UK Ministry of Defence said.
* Putin once said the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal were “undefeatable” systems.
* In Ukraine they’ve been defeated often, the MOD said — either intercepted or just missed the target.
The significance of this is actually far greater than most people realise. These missiles are the delivery vehicle for Russia’s tactical nukes, the fact the Ukrainian Patriot missiles can reliably down them has two significant implications:
1) Russia’s capability to strike Western countries with tactical nukes is in significant doubt.
2) If Russia were to decide to use nukes against Ukraine they could, again, be unsuccessful, resulting in Russia taking all the geopolitical damage of having *tried* to use a weapon of mass destruction without even succeeding in doing so. This is a pretty huge deterrent again Russia even attempting it.