Hypersonic Dagger: what kind of rocket is it and what advantages does it have?

 

In March 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of the advanced Dagger aviation complex, which involves the use of hypersonic aeroballistic missiles. Putin noted in his message to the Federal Assembly that no country in the world possesses such weapons. Today it is no longer a secret that the Kinzhal X-47M2 hypersonic air-launched missile was created on the basis of the Iskander ground-based missile at the Kolomna Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (General Designer V.M. Kashin). The adaptation of the land-based missile to be based on the MiG-31K interceptor fighter was carried out by the Mikoyan Design Bureau, headed by V.I. Barkovsky. The Central Military District began equipping aircraft with Daggers for duty back in 2017. In 2021, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russia had a separate aviation regiment with MiG-31K interceptors armed with hypersonic Daggers. Shoigu also said that in five years, the number of carriers of high-precision weapons with a long range will grow by 30% in Russia. In 2018, in a message to the Federal Assembly, Putin noted that the speed of the Dagger rocket is 10 times higher than the speed of sound, that is, it accelerates to more than 14.5 thousand km/ h. The missiles are capable of attacking targets located at a distance of more than 2,000 kilometers and overcoming all air defense systems in service with various states. The missile's warhead has a mass of 500 kilograms and can be guided using the Russian GLONASS satellite system, as well as a GPS navigation device mounted on the rocket itself.

The Dagger missiles are equipped with a solid propellant RDTT engine, which ensures that there are no problems of possible leaks of toxic fuel, reduces the risk of fire, increases the shelf life of the ammunition and its reliability.

"Scarier than nuclear weapons": the first use of the "Dagger"

On March 18, 2022, the Russian Federation used the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system as part of its military operation in Ukraine. The missile of the complex successfully hit an underground storage of Ukrainian missiles located in a mountainous area in western Ukraine and known as "Object 711" (or "Ivano-Frankivsk-16"). It was not just a warehouse, but one of the central weapons storage bases, built back in 1955 and fortified in such a way as to withstand an atomic bomb attack. At one time, the nuclear warheads of tactical and strategic missiles of the Soviet army were serviced at the 711 Facility. In the early 1990s, nuclear weapons from the facility were exported to Russia. According to the decision of the Ukrainian leadership, most of the stocks of aviation and missile ammunition from Western Ukraine were moved to a fortified warehouse. The media reported that the "Object 711" was essentially an entire military camp at a depth of about 150 meters, consisting of two floors. This facility was considered one of the safest arsenals, but it could not withstand the Dagger strike. A rocket weighing about one and a half tons almost vertically entered the earth at a speed of several kilometers per second. Due to the enormous kinetic energy of the munition, it passed dozens of meters of ground, then broke through the powerful concrete floor of the arsenal and only then exploded. All the energy of the explosion, combined with the detonation of the stocks accumulated in the warehouse, spread through the floors of the "Object 711", as a result of which it was completely destroyed. Yevgeny Mikhailov, a political scientist and expert on interethnic conflicts, said that the Dagger is capable of reaching the most closed objects located at great depths (for example, bunkers) and hitting them, which is more terrifying than nuclear weapons.

"Dagger" fire

After March 18 last year, Kinzhal hypersonic missile systems were repeatedly used in various regions of Ukraine. So, on March 20, 2022, this missile hit a large storage base for fuel and lubricants of the Ukrainian troops in the area of Konstantinovka, and on May 9 and August 7, 2022, Dagger missiles were used against military targets in the Odessa and Vinnytsia regions, respectively. On March 9, 2023, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation published a message about a massive retaliation strike in response to Kiev's attacks on the Bryansk region of Russia. During the strikes, the Dagger complex was also used: in particular, it was used to hit a communications center in the vicinity of Lviv, located at a depth of 120 meters. On May 16, 2023, a Russian MiG-31K interceptor fighter attacked the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system in Kiev with a Dagger. The media reported that Russia destroyed five anti-aircraft launchers of the complex, while the Patriot itself is unable to shoot down the Daggers due to its technical characteristics and lack of experience in managing the complex in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry noted that the flight speed of the Dagger missile exceeds the limits in which the Western air defense systems supplied to Kiev are capable of intercepting aerial targets. Although on May 4, 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the Ukrainian air defense system shot down the Russian Dagger missile for the first time with the help of the Patriot complex, the expert community reacted to this statement with doubt. Earlier, the head of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, noted a significant increase in military production in 2023, including the production of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. Chemezov said that the volume of production of military products (primarily ammunition) They have increased by more than 50 times since February of this year.

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