An expert who has spoken to BBC Verify has cast doubt on Ukraine's claim that Russia has carried out a strike on the central city of Dnipro with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, suggested that the US would have detected the launch of an ICBM by the Russian military.
"Typically, ICBMs do not have conventional warheads. If one were launched out of an operational silo, the United States would have gone on alert fearing it was a nuclear attack," Cancian said.
Original comment below:
It is believed that six RS-26 missile strikes completely destroyed the Yuzhmash defense plant, where the damaged American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and German Leopard tanks were being repaired.
At the same time of the main attack, Kinzhal missiles hit the local Patriot air defense system battery.
The Kinzhal are the hypersonic missiles I believe. They probably wanted to test them against the patriots to see if the patriots can stop them. If they can't then that could open the playback significantly.
Maybe we have other missile defense systems, but the Patriot is one of the more well known systems.
Test them against patriots? No, they have been tested already, they are designed, among other things, to DESTROY patriots.
Patriots cannot intercept hypersonic khinzals which have a vertical terminal phase. There is at least a 30 year technological difference between the two, and the patriot system was not great even when it was introduced. Remember 1991 and Saddam's scuds?
No, what happened was that patriots are still able to intercept the Sarmats (the 'ICBM'), so the khinzals were sent to destroy the patriots, and then the Sarmats did the bigger booms.
In older days we called this SEAD. But now you don't need aircraft to do it.
Yes that's true. Patriots in theory cannot intercept the Sarmat. But I guess the Russians wanted to make a point (NATO, your AD sucks), and also wanted to be damn sure the Sarmat hit.
Incidentally I read somewhere that it was a newer version of Sarmat. MIRV, 6x6. That's a lot of stuff coming at you.
It wasn't a Sarmat at all. What you read is wrong, though the Sarmat can be equipped with hypersonic penetrators. The Russian code name for what they shot is "Oreshnik" and it was an intermediate-range ballistic missile. Patriots are not designed to intercept these things, though they might try. The more appropriate defense system would be THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense).
UPDATE: US official disputes Ukraine's claim that Russia used intercontinental ballistic missile
Original comment below:
The Kinzhal are the hypersonic missiles I believe. They probably wanted to test them against the patriots to see if the patriots can stop them. If they can't then that could open the playback significantly.
Maybe we have other missile defense systems, but the Patriot is one of the more well known systems.
Another video of the heavenly punishment that befell the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepropetrovsk.
Test them against patriots? No, they have been tested already, they are designed, among other things, to DESTROY patriots.
Patriots cannot intercept hypersonic khinzals which have a vertical terminal phase. There is at least a 30 year technological difference between the two, and the patriot system was not great even when it was introduced. Remember 1991 and Saddam's scuds?
No, what happened was that patriots are still able to intercept the Sarmats (the 'ICBM'), so the khinzals were sent to destroy the patriots, and then the Sarmats did the bigger booms.
In older days we called this SEAD. But now you don't need aircraft to do it.
Patriots have never been able to intercept RS-28 "Sarmats". That is a full-fledged ICBM and has a terminal velocity much higher than Mach 10.
Yes that's true. Patriots in theory cannot intercept the Sarmat. But I guess the Russians wanted to make a point (NATO, your AD sucks), and also wanted to be damn sure the Sarmat hit.
Incidentally I read somewhere that it was a newer version of Sarmat. MIRV, 6x6. That's a lot of stuff coming at you.
It wasn't a Sarmat at all. What you read is wrong, though the Sarmat can be equipped with hypersonic penetrators. The Russian code name for what they shot is "Oreshnik" and it was an intermediate-range ballistic missile. Patriots are not designed to intercept these things, though they might try. The more appropriate defense system would be THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense).