NOS News•
Ukraine’s air force says it has shot down a Russian hypersonic missile for the first time. According to the air force, a Kinzjal missile, which flies faster than sound, was shot down by a Patriot anti-aircraft system.
The missile would have been destroyed the day before yesterday, but Ukraine is only now revealing this. Air Force spokesman Joeri Inhat calls it down against CNN a slap in the face of Russia. “Russians called the Patriot an old-fashioned American weapon and claimed that Russian weapons are the best in the world. Well, this interception is confirmation that the Patriot even works against a hypersonic missile.”
Shot from the sky near Kyiv
The missile is said to have been shot down in the airspace near Kyiv. The reports have not been independently confirmed, and Russia has not yet responded. But if Ukraine actually managed to get such a missile out of the sky, then that is a remarkable achievement. “Hypersonic missiles are also very difficult for Patriots to shoot down,” said defense expert Patrick Bolder in an interview with NOS.
It is estimated that the Kremlin has only a few dozen KH-47 Kinzjal (Russian for dagger) missiles. The missiles were developed recently, with the aim of passing the most advanced anti-aircraft systems. According to the Russian military, the missiles have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers and fly about ten times faster than sound.
The Kinzjal is one of the slower hypersonic missiles. In this explanation you can see what the most powerful models can do:
The US and Germany have supplied a Patriot system to Ukraine, and the Netherlands has also agreed to supply two parts of the anti-aircraft system. The first Patriot missiles arrived in Ukraine last month. Kyiv does not say how many of these missile defense systems it owns in total.
2023-05-06 14:42:08
#Ukraine #hypersonic #missile #sky
