The Specs // Nation: Russia | Length: 26 ft. It was first seen in 2010 proposals for a weapon to be carried by a MiG-31 “Foxhound” fighter. It is an air-launched version of a ground-launched Iskander ballistic missile, with only fairly minor modifications for the new launch method. Their doubts are rooted in the Kinzhal’s lineage. “It doesn’t meet the maneuverability criteria for being a true hypersonic weapon,” he tells Popular Mechanics. Sidharth Kaushal, Ph.D., of the U.K.-based defense think tank RUSI is similarly doubtful about the “hypersonic” label.
“It’s only hypersonic in the sense that pretty much all ballistic missiles are hypersonic.” “Kinzhal is nothing more than an air-launched ballistic missile,” Jeffrey Lewis, Ph.D., of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, tells Popular Mechanics. “Kinzhal is nothing more than an air-launched ballistic missile.”īut Western analysts already knew about this missile, which has the NATO reporting name “Killjoy.” They were not impressed with Putin’s attempt at rebranding. “Which also allows it to overcome all existing and, I think, prospective anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems, delivering nuclear and conventional warheads to a range of over 2,000 kilometers.” “The missile flying at a hypersonic speed, ten times faster than the speed of sound, can also maneuver at all phases of its flight trajectory,” Putin said. That included three hypersonic weapons, one of which was a new missile called “Kinzhal” or “Dagger,” launched from a jet fighter to attack ground targets and ships. In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a speech announcing a slew of new weapons to defeat American anti-missile technology. So did the strike really signal Russia’s superiority in hypersonic missile technology? And is the Kinzhal truly the unstoppable Mach 10 superweapon that Kremlin supporters claim?Ī peek behind the curtain shows that things are not quite what they seem. Tod Wolters described using the missile as an attempt “to put fear into the hearts” of Ukrainians, rather than hitting military targets. Ukrainian officials would not comment on what the Kinzhals hit or how much damage they did, though one previous Kinzhal strike targeted a fuel depot. It was the largest number of the new missiles ever fired at once. The defenders brought down many of the incoming weapons with surface-to-air missiles, but six Kinzhal missiles streaked past at high speeds, seemingly impossible to intercept. On Thursday, March 9, Russia fired a barrage of more than 80 missiles at Ukraine.
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