Ukraine's Air Force admitted on May 6 that it shot down a Russian Kh-47 Kinzhal ballistic missile for the first time since the start of the war.
The Air Force said that a Patriot air defense system was used to destroy the ballistic missile over Kyiv Oblast that Russia launched from MiG-31K in its territory at around 2:30 a.m. on May 4.
The Air Force said that the military leadership decided not to publish information about the downing of the Kh-47 Kinzhal missile by the Patriot system immediately due to "quite obvious" reasons. It didn't elaborate.
The report comes after a denial from the force's spokesperson Yurii Ihnat on May 5, who said that ballistic missiles were not shot down or even detected over Kyiv's airspace on May 4.
The question to Ihnat was in response to the publication Defense Express's report on May 5 that a Kh-47 Kinzhal ballistic missile could have been successfully shot down by Ukrainian air defense overnight on May 4.
Ukraine received U.S. Patriot air defense systems at the end of April, which are viewed as one of the world's best air defense systems, and enable Ukraine to shoot down ballistic missiles.
WellOkayMaybe on May 7th, 2023 at 09:15 UTC »
This is NOT a big deal.
All ballistic missiles are hypersonic. These have always been hypersonic, dating back to the V-2.
The Kinzhal is basically an Iskander ballistic missile strapped on a MiG-31 one at a time without most of its primary stage as it's being fired from high altitudes. It lights up early warning and search radars like a Christmas tree, right at the time of launch, and provides ample time for missile defense OODA loops to run their course.
This sort of thing is exactly what the Patriot and the PAC-3 systems in particular were designed to shoot down, after failures against Iraqi Scuds during Desert Shield/Strom.
The Kinzhal is NOT a scramjet-powered, low-flying hypersonic cruise missile, which may only be detected seconds before impact. Intercepting a Russian Tsirkon scramjet hypersonic cruise missile would indeed be big news - but they're designed for anti-shipping roles against major surface combatants, and are unlikely to be used on land targets due to their cost.
fabissi on May 6th, 2023 at 20:01 UTC »
If this is true seems like a pretty big deal? I’m not sure if this is an expected outcome, could be remembering wrong.
KI_official on May 6th, 2023 at 19:44 UTC »
Submission Statement:
Ukraine's Air Force has confirmed that it shot down a Russian Kh-47 Kinzhal ballistic missile on May 4 using a Patriot air defense system over Kyiv Oblast. The military leadership initially decided not to release information about the incident due to "quite obvious" reasons, without further elaboration. This admission follows a denial by the force's spokesperson the day prior.