Patriot missile launchers acquired from the U.S. are seen deployed in Warsaw, Poland, in February.
Michal Dyjuk/AP
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Michal Dyjuk/AP
Patriot missile launchers acquired from the U.S. are seen deployed in Warsaw, Poland, in February.
Michal Dyjuk/AP
Ukraine stated Saturday {that a} U.S.-supplied Patriot battery was used to intercept an incoming Russian hypersonic missile over the capital, Kyiv, in what’s believed to be the primary downing of the delicate Russian weapon and Ukraine’s first use of the U.S. protection system.
In a publish on Telegram, Ukrainian Air Drive commander Mykola Oleshchuk stated the Patriot destroyed the Kinzhal, a kind of missile that may journey as much as ten instances the pace of sound to evade air defenses.
Oleshchuk stated the Russian missile was shot down throughout a night-time assault on Kyiv earlier this week. “Sure, we shot down the ‘distinctive’ Kinzhal,” he wrote, including that it had been launched from a Russian MiG-31K plane.
In previous strikes, Kyiv’s air power has managed to intercept many Russian missiles, however earlier this 12 months, the Kremlin started growing its use of the Kinzhals, or “Daggers” in Russian, in an obvious effort to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses.
In December, the U.S. introduced it might provide Ukraine with Patriot surface-to-air missiles to assist defend it towards Moscow’s air strikes. The Pentagon stated in January that Ukrainian forces would obtain coaching on the system at Fort Sill, Okla. The surface-to-air missile system requires a 90-person crew to function and keep it.
The missile battery reportedly arrived in Ukraine final month.
Ukrainian Protection Minister Oleksii Reznikov stated final 12 months that his nation had first requested the U.S. to produce Patriots in 2021, effectively earlier than the Kremlin’s newest invasion that started in Feb. 2022.
Russia’s army says the Kinzhal, unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin 5 years in the past, can journey at speeds as much as 7,600 miles per hour with a spread of about 1,250 miles. It’s a part of a category of subtle Russian missiles that additionally contains the Avangard hypersonic glide automobile, which might fly at speeds as excessive as Mach 20, in line with the Kremlin, and the Zircon, a hypersonic anti-ship missile. There aren’t any studies of both the Zircon or the Avangard having ever been utilized in fight.
