A Russian Air Force MiG-31K jet carries a Kh-47M2 Kinzhal high-precision hypersonic aeroballistic missile during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow this ima on May 9, 2018 (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)
Russia used hypersonic missiles in its invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden confirmed on Monday.
“And if you notice, (Russia) just launched the hypersonic missile because it’s the only thing they can penetrate with absolute certainty,” Biden said. “It’s a follow-on weapon… nearly impossible to stop. There’s a reason they use them.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a Tuesday news briefing that Russian forces have used hypersonic missiles “on at least one occasion” that the US is aware of. Russian forces used the hypersonic missile “against a fixed structure” from “relatively close range,” Kirby said.
Despite Biden’s comments, British intelligence and even the US President’s Defense Secretary have downplayed Russia’s use of its Kinzhal air-launched missiles.
“I wouldn’t see it as a game changer,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told CBS’ Face the Nation.
And Britain’s MoD said the Kinzhal missile is really just an air-launched version of the Iskander short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), which Russia has repeatedly used in its invasion of Ukraine.
Why the fear and hype about hypersonic missiles? First, it is important to understand the term.
Essentially, all rockets are hypersonic — meaning they travel at least five times the speed of sound. Almost every warhead launched from a missile miles into the atmosphere will reach this speed en route to its target. It’s not new technology.
What military powers – including Russia, China, the United States and North Korea – are working on is a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV). A truck is an extremely maneuverable payload that can theoretically fly at supersonic speeds while adjusting course and altitude to fly under radar detection and around missile defenses.
A truck is the weapon that is almost impossible to stop. And Russia is said to have a truck in its arsenal, the Avangard system, which Russian President Vladimir Putin described in 2018 as “virtually invulnerable” to Western air defenses.
But the Kinzhal, as a variant of the Iskander SRBM, is not a truck. Although like the Iskander it has limited manoeuvrability, its main advantage is that it can be launched from MiG-31 fighter jets, giving it greater range and the ability to attack from multiple directions, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The MiG-31K can strike from unpredictable directions and completely avoid intercept attempts. The flying carrier vehicle could also be more survivable than the road-mobile Iskander system,” the report said.
The same report also noted that the ground-based Iskander proved vulnerable to missile defense systems during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, in which Azerbaijani forces intercepted an Armenian Iskander.
“This suggests that claims about the Kinzhal’s invulnerability to missile defense systems may also be somewhat exaggerated,” the report said.
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