US military commander in Europe Tod Wolters on Tuesday claimed that Russia has repeatedly fired hypersonic missiles at Ukrainian military targets. “Most of those strikes have been designated at specific military targets,” Wolters said. On March 19, Russia announced that it used hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles to destroy a large weapons depot in Ukraine’s western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Earlier, the United States had said it could not independently confirm or refute a Russian claim that it fired hypersonic missiles at a Ukrainian target, but the use of such a weapon makes little sense from a military perspective and could be meant to send a message.
The US is accelerating development to catch up. The American weapon would launch like a ballistic missile and would release a hypersonic glide vehicle that would reach speeds seven to eight times faster than the speed of sound before hitting the target.
In Maine, General Dynamics subsidiary Bath Iron Works has begun engineering and design work on changes necessary to install the weapon system on three Zumwalt-class destroyers.
Kinzhal has been termed as a game-changer as Russia was testing it. It is an air-launched hypersonic missile with a reported range of 1,500-2,000 km. It can carry a nuclear payload of 480 kg and is 33 times the yield of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Hiroshima, reports claimed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had reportedly unveiled the Kinzhal in March 2018. Experts believe the concept of Kinzhal must have derived from the ground-launched Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine and Russia failed to clinch a cease-fire in talks that ended in Istanbul, with Moscow saying it will reduce military operations in areas where its forces are being pushed back and Kyiv calling for security guarantees from European Union and NATO members.
A Ukrainian negotiator said his country is seeking guarantees for territory that doesn’t include Russian-controlled areas and that Kyiv is willing to discuss the status of occupied Crimea. Russia indicated a meeting was possible between President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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