2023-05-17 17:37:40
If Ukraine actually managed to shoot down the Kinjal missiles, it would be a painful blow to the Russian military and its efforts to develop new-generation missile weapons that cannot be intercepted.
Ukraine said on Tuesday that it had shot down six Russian Kinjal hypersonic missiles [الخنجر]Kiev was fired upon early the same day.
But the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, denied the news, and said that Russia had fired only two Kinjal missiles during the recent missile attack, in which other Kalibr cruise missiles and Iranian Shahed drones were used.
In any case, if Ukraine actually managed to shoot down the Kinjal missiles, it would be a painful blow to the Russian army, and its efforts to develop new-generation missile weapons cannot be intercepted.
The Ukrainian military leadership said that it shot down the Russian missiles using US-made Patriot air defense batteries. Can Patriot really do this?
What is the Patriot system?
It is definitely the most advanced air defense system in the US Army. It began to be developed in the seventies of the last century by Raytheon Technologies and had another name. It was handed over to the US Army, which put it into service in 1984.
These systems were used in several wars, most notably the first Gulf War and the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, and batteries were deployed in Saudi Arabia, Israel and Kuwait.
Can it intercept hypersonic missiles?
The Patriot system was designed and fielded in an era predating the development of hypersonic weapons. Raytheon Technologies has never reported on the effectiveness of the Patriot against missiles that fly at hypersonic speeds (at least five times the speed of sound).
And while the Pentagon announced last week that the Patriot system shot down a Russian-made Kinjal missile, it is difficult for Euronews to independently verify this news, amid a media war raging between Moscow and the West. It is also difficult to verify that the missile that was shot down by the system was flying at hypersonic speed.
Russia says that its Kinjal missiles are capable of flying at a speed of 12,350 kilometers per hour, but the Center for Strategic and International Studies says that describing the “hypersonic” used by the Russian army may be an exaggeration.
AndThe center reminds Archyde.com All ballistic missiles may fly at hypersonic speed during a certain period of their flight (i.e. above Mach 5).
In reference to the utmost secret military importance of what happened at dawn on Monday, and after watching many videos that spread on social media, no video documenting the moment of intercepting missiles clearly appeared, as we saw previously with Iron Dome in Israel.
How does the Patriot system work?
The Patriot system consists of several parts: a radar, control station, launch pad, generator, and other support mechanisms. The system’s ability to air defense [المدى مثلاً] It depends on the type of missiles placed in the launch pad, as there are several types of them.
It is known that there are two types of missiles:
- Conventional PAC-2, which is equipped with an explosive warhead.
- Another type is called PAC-3 and it uses more advanced technology
The United States of America did not announce the type of missiles that it supplied the defense systems that it delivered to Ukraine, but Archyde.com is likely to have acquired some PAC-3 missiles.
The system’s radar can identify flying objects at a distance of 150 kilometers, according to what was announced by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2015.
What’s the price?
A single, newly manufactured Patriot battery costs more than $1 billion. 400 million dollars, including the system and more than 690 million dollars for interception missiles, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Patriot system can also intercept Iranian suicide planes, according to what the US military says, but Kiev does not use it for this purpose, especially since interception missiles are very expensive compared to cheap drones.
What is the extent of using the Patriot system globally?
Raytheon Technologies says it has built more than 240 systems and is currently in use in 18 countries, including the United States. Several countries in the Middle East had requested or purchased these systems.
According to Raytheon Technologies, the system has intercepted more than 150 ballistic missiles during military confrontations, since 2015, in various regions around the world.
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