Yes.wm wrote: ↑25 May 2023, 12:05The Kremlin invested a lot into propaganda that portrayed Russia as the sole leader in hypersonic technology and, moreover, as the first military power to ever use hypersonic weapons in combat.
What the Kremlin propagandists were not too eager to reveal about the Kinzhal was that it was not a brand new design – but a modification of the Iskander missile.
As a surface-to-surface short-range, tactical ballistic missile system, the Iskander’s design dates back to the 1980s and is also widely used against Ukraine.
Amid the hypersonic race in the 2010s, Russia adapted the Iskander missile to be launched not from the ground but an aircraft – and called this a hypersonic missile system Kh-47M2 Kinzhal.
But to be called a hypersonic missile armament, it’s not enough to just travel at the speed of over Mach 5.
Pretty much any ballistic missile reaches hypersonic speed. That includes Iskanders, any intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), or even Nazi Germany’s V-2 missiles used in 1944 and 1945.
To be considered a truly hypersonic weapon, a missile must also be highly maneuverable at a hypersonic speed.
Despite Putin’s unsupported claims, the Kinzhal has never demonstrated anything more than minor flight course corrections, which is typical for many conventional ballistic systems.
In a 2020 report, NATO classified the Kinzhal as an “air-launched ballistic missile” that is “not generally characterized as a hypersonic weapon.”
According to primitive Russky propaganda Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is Mach 10 missile. Very funny. Then how come older variant of Patriot (in Ukraine) with its Mach 2.8 is able to shot down Kinzhal very easily, not to mention the newest Mach 4.1 Patriot. Russky crooks and idiots
I wait impatiently for the first air combat between Ukrainian F-16AM Block 20 MLU and another ridiculous Russky myth of Su-57 being supposedly "5th Generation fighter"