Russia’s Ministry of Defense admits it fired a Kinzhal hypersonic missile at an ammunition depot in the vicinity of the city of Deliatyn in southwestern Ukraine, on March 19, 2022. This is the first time the hypersonic weapon has been used in combat fired from a MiG 31 fighter.
Russia has been developing hypersonic missiles since 1980 and to date there are 3 Russian flagship hypersonic missiles that have entered military service. The three hypersonic missiles that Russia has successfully developed are the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, 3M22 Zirkon, and the Avangard (Hypersonic Glide Vehicle).
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The Kinzhal missile was first introduced by President Vladimir Putin on March 1, 2018, as one of Russia’s six new strategic weapons. A week later, the Russian Aerospace Forces conducted the first test-fire of a Kinzhal missile from a MiG-31B aircraft over Southwestern Russia.
Quoted from the Missiledefenseadvocacy page, the Kinzhal hypersonic missile has a range of more than 2,000 km, a speed of more than Mach 10, and evasive maneuverability at every stage of flight. The Kinzhal missile is capable of carrying a conventional warhead and can be replaced with a nuclear warhead weighing the same 480 kg.
The Kinzhal missile is a modernization of the Iskander-M ballistic missile system, so the mention of it as a hypersonic missile is somewhat misleading. Because, almost all ballistic missiles reach hypersonic speeds or above Mach 5.
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The Kinzhal missile, like the Iskander-M, has similar dimensions, namely a length of 8 meters, a body diameter of 1 meter and a launch weight of about 4,300 kg. The difference is that the Iskander-M missile is launched from the ground, while the Kinzhal missile is launched from the air using a Tu-22M3 bomber or a MiG-31K interceptor.
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