Russia Attacks Ukraine With Air-Launched “Dagger” Kinzhal Hypersonic Missile
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by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Russia has attacked Ukraine with a cutting edge air-launched “hypersonic” Kinzhal missile, fired for the first time from the air on an Su-34 fighter. The attack took place from a Su-34 fighter-bomber armed with the highly-celebrated “dagger” missile, a weapon referred to as the Kinzhal hypersonic missile reportedly capable of traveling 10-times the speed of sound.
The Kinzhal hypersonic weapon has been used multiple times during Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, yet this recent announcement marks the first time the weapon has been fired from the air, a development of tactical and strategic relevance.
“The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is a hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile that can reach a top speed of between Mach 10 and Mach 12 (10 or 12 times the speed of sound). It is based on the first stage of the 9K720 Iskander ground-launched ballistic missile, with the addition of a booster to bring it to hypersonic speeds in the atmosphere. Based on its similarities with the Iskander, its mass is estimated at around 4,300 kilograms (9,500 pounds),” an essay in Aerotime says.
Should the Russian military actually succeed in launching a hypersonic weapon from the air, that would introduce a new measure of threats posed to both Ukraine and NATO. An Air-Launched hypersonic missile, for example, could quickly vary its angle of attack and also fly closer-in to targets for attacks at much closer “stand-in” ranges.
The US Air Force has paused it Air-Launched Rapid-Response Weapon (ARRW) due to technical challenges, a circumstance which suggests that the US could be behind Russia with hypersonic weapons if Russia’s “dagger” operates as advertised.
However, Russian state media has a history of “hyping” weapons capability to a visible extent, and it is not clear what kind of Kinzhal arsenal the Russian military actually operates with. Several news reports suggest they may not have a large stockpile of the “dagger” weapons. Furthermore, the Kinzhal may not fully function in a hypersonic capacity or fly with precision-targeting or an ability to strike targets on the move. Achieving hypersonic speeds is much more achievable than “sustaining” hypersonic speeds, so the Kinzahl may or may not have been effective against Ukraine should it not be able to sustain hypersonic flight and align with a precision-targeting trajectory.
The Pentagon, by contrast, is already working on its Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, a missile which will in the future operate with a “tech insertion” capable of enabling the weapon to track and destroy moving targets.
