The Russian hypersonic missile intercepted over the skies of Kyiv last week was destroyed by the very air defense system it was aiming for, according to reports.
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The Kinzhal missile was taken out by a Ukrainian-manned Patriot air defense system on May 4, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed a few days after the incident.
Further analysis suggests that the encounter between the two missile systems was more than just pure chance. CNN quotes two US officials who believe the Kinzhal had been fired by a MiG-31K aircraft from Russian territory with the sole aim of striking the Patriot system that eventually shot it down.
The Patriot missile system relies on its advanced AN/MPQ-53/65 radar set to identify incoming threats out to 170 km, giving it the ability to intercept conventional and ballistic missile threats. While an obvious strength it also emits a unique radar signature which, it appears, allowed Russian forces not only to identify the type of system but also an approximate location of the equipment.
In contrast to some of the shorter-range mobile air defense systems deployed by Ukraine, the Patriot battery is a more stationary system, that makes it easier to locate and target over time. The US has developed tactical and technological procedures that allow operators to partially conceal the radar fingerprint. If as, suggested, failure to do this allowed detection by Russian countermeasures and is probably indicative of some inexperience on the part of the Ukrainian operators.
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That said, the officials speaking to CNN pointed out that the Russian attack was unsuccessful as the Ukrainian military managed to shoot it down. It also marks the first known success by the Ukrainian operators who had only received the equipment a few weeks earlier and was a testament to how quickly they became proficient in operating the highly sophisticated system.
The US Patriot system is one of an array of sophisticated air defense equipment supplied by the West to help defend Ukraine against the frequent Russian drone and missile attacks. The first Patriots are reported to have only arrived in Ukraine in mid-April.
Ukraine has not declared how many of the systems it has or where they have been deployed, but they are known to have received them from the US, Germany and the Netherlands.
Initially, it was thought that the delivery timeline would be several months, after the US agreed to provide the Patriot missile systems to Ukraine, because of the complexity of the system. However, the Ukrainian military surprised everybody by assimilating the training, given by US, German and Dutch trainers, after only a few months.
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