(CNN) — Russia has used hypersonic missiles in its invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden confirmed on Monday.
“And if you notice, (Russia) just launched the hypersonic missile, because it’s the only thing they can get through with absolute certainty,” Biden said. “It’s a consistent weapon…it’s nearly impossible to stop. There’s a reason they’re using it.”
But British intelligence and even Biden’s own defense secretary have downplayed Russia’s use of its air-launched Kinzhal missiles.
“I wouldn’t see it as a sea change,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
And the UK Ministry of Defense said the Kinzhal missile is actually just an air-launched version of the Iskander short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), which Russia has used repeatedly in its invasion of Ukraine.
A Russian Air Force MiG-31K jet carries a Kh-47M2 Kinzhal high-precision hypersonic aeroballistic missile during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2018.
Why the fear and hype about hypersonic missiles?
First, it is important to understand the term.
Essentially, all missiles are hypersonic, meaning they travel at least five times the speed of sound. Almost any warhead launched from a rocket miles into the atmosphere will reach this speed toward its target. It is not a new technology.
What military powers including Russia, China, the United States and North Korea are now working on is a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV). An HGV is a highly maneuverable payload that can theoretically fly at hypersonic speed while adjusting heading and altitude to fly under radar detection and around missile defenses.
An HGV is the weapon that is almost impossible to stop. And Russia is believed to have one HGV in its arsenal, the Avangard system, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called in 2018 “virtually invulnerable” to Western air defenses.
But the Kinzhal, as a variant of the Iskander SRBM, is not an HGV. While it has limited maneuverability like the Iskander, its main advantage is that it can be launched from MiG-31 fighter jets, giving it greater range and the ability to attack from multiple directions, according to a report last year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The MiG-31K can attack from unpredictable directions and could avoid interception attempts altogether. The flying transport vehicle could also have more survivability than the road-mobile Iskander system,” the report says.
The same report also noted that the ground-launched Iskander proved vulnerable to missile defense systems during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, during which Azeri forces intercepted an Armenian Iskander.
“This suggests that claims about the Kinzhal’s invulnerability to missile defense systems may also be somewhat exaggerated,” the report says.
Does Ukraine have missile defense?
The United States and its NATO allies are already sending several surface-to-air missile systems to Ukraine to help defend it.
According to a senior US official, these additional systems include the Soviet-era SA-8, SA-10, SA-12 and SA-14 mobile air defense systems.
And NATO member Slovakia has agreed to send even better S-300 missile defense batteries to Ukraine once it gets suitable replacements from NATO partners, sources told CNN.
Why did Putin use the Kinzhal missile?
Use in Ukraine marks the combat debut of Russia’s Kinzhal system.
“On March 18, the Kinzhal aviation missile system with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse of missiles and aviation ammunition of Ukrainian troops in the village of Delyatin, Ivano-Frankivsk region,” the Defense Ministry said. From Russia.
CNN was unable to independently verify this claim.
US officials later confirmed to CNN that Russia launched hypersonic missiles at Ukraine and was able to track the launches in real time.
The launches were likely intended to test the weapons and send a message to the West about Russian capabilities, multiple sources told CNN.
And with the war on the ground in Ukraine turning into a stalemate, Russia may be looking for victories it can promote.
The UK Defense Ministry said Moscow likely deployed the Kinzhal to “decrease the lack of progress in Russia’s ground campaign”.
Austin, the US defense secretary, used similar language in his CBS interview, saying that Putin is “trying to restore some momentum” in his invasion of Ukraine.
Austin asked if the Russian military was running out of precision-guided munitions or if Putin was not confident “in his troops’ ability to restore momentum.”
“You wonder why he would do this,” he said.