7. On May 1, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced on his Twitter that thanks to the American Patriot air defense system, they managed to shoot down the Russian Kinzhal missile. This was possible thanks to the support of the Ukrainian armed forces from international partners, Reznikov noted in his message.
According to the Minister of Defense, Ukraine was previously unable to shoot down the hypersonic Kh-47 aeroballistic missile launched by the Russian army. But now the army of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has such an opportunity.
“The Patriot system, Ukraine's new powerful air defense system, shot down the Russian Kh-47 hypersonic aeroballistic missile. We didn't have the ability to destroy such targets before, but with the support of our friends, the impossible became possible!” Reznikov wrote.
9-A-7660 Kinzhal (Kh-47M2 Kinzhal in a number of sources) is a Russian hypersonic air-to-air missile system. Hypersonic missiles 9-S-7760 (about 10 M) of the complex are capable of hitting both stationary objects and surface ships: aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and frigates.
The principle of operation of “Daggers” is to fly to the target at supersonic speed and then slow down to reach the target at a much lower speed for correction and maneuvering. The antiquated Soviet air defense systems are therefore unable to shoot down such a missile, which did not happen before. In most cases, defeating such a target is possible only with the help of the Patriot PAC-3 air defense system with the PAC-3 MSE kinetic interceptor. A hole in the debris in the photo indicates the possible use of such a missile, writes Military Informant.
