Russia has used hypersonic missiles in its invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden confirmed on Monday.
“And if you will, (Russia has) just launched the hypersonic missile, because that’s the only thing they can get through with absolute certainty,” Biden said. “It’s an accompanying weapon … it’s almost impossible to stop it. There’s a reason they use it.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a news briefing on Tuesday that Russian forces used hypersonic missiles “at least in one case” that the United States is aware of. Russian forces used the hypersonic missile “against a solid building” at “relatively close range,” Kirby said.
Despite Biden’s comments, the British intelligence service and even the US President’s own defense minister have downplayed Russia’s use of its air-firing Kinzhal missiles.
“I did not want to see it as a game changer,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told CBS ‘Face the Nation.
And the British Ministry of Defense said that the Kinzhal missile is in fact just an air-launching version of the Iskander short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) that Russia has used repeatedly in its invasion of Ukraine.
Why the fear and hype about hypersonic missiles? First, it is important to understand the term.
Basically, all missiles are hypersonic – meaning they move at least five times the speed of sound. Almost any warhead released from a rocket miles into the atmosphere will reach this speed on its way to its target. It is not a new technology.
What military powers – including Russia, China, the United States and North Korea – are working on now is a hypersonic glider (HGV). A truck is a highly manoeuvrable payload that can theoretically fly at hypersonic speeds while adjusting course and altitude to fly under radar detection and around missile defense.
A truck is the weapon that is almost impossible to stop. And Russia is believed to have a truck in its arsenal, the Avangard system, which Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018 called “virtually invulnerable” to Western air defenses.
But the Kinzhal, like a variant of the Iskander SRBM, is not a truck. Although it has limited maneuverability like the Iskander, its biggest advantage is that it can be launched from MiG-31 fighter jets, giving it a longer range and the ability to attack from multiple directions, according to a report last year from the Center for Strategic and International Studies .
“MiG-31K can hit from unpredictable directions and can completely avoid eavesdropping attempts. The flying transport vehicle can also be more survivable than the road mobile Iskander system,” the report states.
The same report also noted that the land-launched Iskander proved to be vulnerable to missile defense systems during the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020, in which Azeri forces intercepted an Armenian Iskander.
“This suggests that allegations of Kinzhal’s invulnerability to missile defense systems may also be somewhat exaggerated,” the report said.
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