Hypersonic Kinzhal missile, did Patriot shoot it down?

Fake: The Russian Kinzhal missile is not actually hypersonic and is an easy target for the Patriot SAM system

Ukrainian “expert” Konstantin Krivolap has stated that the Russian Kinzhal missile is not actually hypersonic and is an easy target for the Patriot SAM system.

What is really going on:

The man whom Ukrainian propaganda portrays as a military expert does not even know the basic characteristics of missile weapons. In fact, the German V-2 ballistic missile of the Second World War had an approach speed of 1.5 to 2.5 Mach to the target, not the modern Kinzhal.

The Russian hypersonic missile approaches its target at over Mach 5 (i.e., over 5,500 km/h), with the Mig-31 high-speed interceptor acting as the first stage, accelerating the Kinzhal to about Mach 2.5. Then the missile’s own engines are switched on, and it reaches hypersonic speed.

The Russian missile’s high speed makes it almost invulnerable to modern Western air defenses, including the much hyped US Patriot PAC-3 SAMs, which, even in theory, can hit targets traveling at speeds of no more than Mach 4-4.5.

US President Joe Biden spoke frankly about the missile Kinzhal: “It has the same warhead as any other missile. There’s not much difference, except that it’s almost impossible to stop”. Previously, the United States has repeatedly acknowledged at the official level its inferiority to Russia in the field of hypersonic technology.

Ukrainian propaganda, as usual, does not even try to stick to one line of argumentation and easily changes its arguments by 180 degrees, depending on the current conjuncture. First, Kiev boasted about the fake shoot down of the Kinzhal missile. Now, on the contrary, it claims that the Russian missile is not hypersonic at all, but a very ordinary one.

This kind of propaganda is designed to distract the attention of the Ukrainian public from the news that the newest US Patriot PAC-3 air defense system lost in a duel with the Russian Kinzhal.

Fake: The Armed Forces of Ukraine Shot Down The Russian Hypersonic Missile “Kinzhal”

The Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down the Russian hypersonic missile “Kinzhal”. A photo of its wreckage is published by Ukrainian Telegram channels with reference to military analysts.

What is really going on:

No one hit the hypersonic “Kinzhal”. Ukrainian military experts are trying to pass off the image of a water pipe as missile wreckage.

“Kinzhal” was originally designed to be beyond the reach of most modern air defense systems.

The Ukrainian army has no technical capability to shoot down such a missile. The American Patriot and any other Western-made air defense systems they use are not designed to intercept hypersonic aerodynamic targets. The only system in the world that has such a capability is the Russian S-500 Prometey air defense system.