Russia strikes Ukraine with new-style missiles
2023.03.11 02:15
Russia strikes Ukraine with new-style missiles
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – One of Moscow’s largest aerial assaults in months, Russia’s overnight missile attack on Ukraine on Thursday pounded the country with a variety of missiles.
According to the regional governor, the most recent wave of strikes has left nearly half a million people without power in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine.
Additionally, there are concerns regarding Ukraine’s capacity to withstand such bombardments.
Alexander Rodnyansky, Zelensky’s economic advisor, stated, “They’re sending a very strong signal to everyone in Ukraine, and perhaps some of our refugees outside of Ukraine, that life is very far from returning to normal despite the fact that over the past few weeks there was more quiet.”
However, Western experts assert that such aerial strikes will not win the war for Russia.
Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for airpower and technology at the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, stated, “There is a long history of nations trying to win wars through strategic bombardment, to break the will or capacity of an opposing state to resist.” It has a very poor track record of success.
As long as Russia’s air force is unable to gain supremacy over Ukraine, it is unlikely that they will force a major breakthrough in the war through the skies due to its limited stockpiles.
This is the very thing you want to realize about Russia’s most recent rocket assaults, and what they mean for the contention.
Russian missiles
In a morning update on Friday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russia launched a total of 95 different types of missiles over the course of the day, 34 of which were intercepted. Additionally, Iran produced a number of Shahed drones.
The cruise missiles in that array came from both the air and the sea; According to Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi, six distinct kinds were utilized in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The six Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile launches, which are particularly challenging to stop, have received a lot of attention.
Rarely has the potent weapon been seen in the country’s skies. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), it was first used in Ukraine in March of last year, and it has continued to be used occasionally since then.
It is hypersonic, which means it travels at least five times faster than sound, like almost all ballistic missiles. However, its ability to be launched from MiG-31 fighter jets, giving it a longer range, the ability to attack from multiple directions, and the ability to maneuver as it gets closer to its target, make it particularly difficult to detect.
Russia’s Strategy
Russia increasingly prefers to strike through the skies by using so many different weapons systems in one night.
According to Bronk, “there’s been a trend toward larger gaps between missile raids, but more missiles used at once when they do” in order to make it harder for defenses to intercept all of them.
This change has taken place as a result of Ukraine’s improved and more advanced air defenses and as a means of maximizing the impact of each strike wave.
According to Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), “Moscow appears to have been adapting its missile attacks to further complicate the challenge for defenders, with a mix of subsonic cruise missiles, the much higher speed Kinzhal aero-ballistic missiles, and possibly also decoys and other countermeasures.”
The utilization of hypersonic rockets specifically follows the Kremlin’s years-long push to outfit its military with such weaponry – a move that the US and the West has been less quick to embrace, given the compromises in chasing after hypersonic capacities.
You get a missile that is much more difficult to intercept and gives your adversary much less notice. Bronk explained, “What you lose is that it is much more expensive and frequently can only be carried by a much smaller number of platforms.”
Air defense of Ukraine
Following Thursday’s missile barrage, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukraine’s air defense systems did not adequately withstand Russia’s nuclear-capable Kinzhal missiles.
“They are using missiles with a high speed. In an interview with Isa Soares, Rodnyansky stated that “they are not coping well enough” when he stated that “they are using new types of weapons and they are seeing how our air defense systems can cope with it.”
In the past, Ukraine has improved its ability to shoot down incoming cruise missiles with surface-to-air defenses and achieved particularly high levels of success against Shahed drones in response to new Russian aerial bombardments.
“They’ve seen a ton of the likely examples as far as courses and the manner in which the Russians plan their rocket salvos, so they have better at situating their air safeguard groups,” Bronk said. He added that Ukraine’s command and control as well as its capacity to track incoming strikes has expanded, frequently with the assistance of Ukrainians via an app.
However, the Kinzhal presents a particular obstacle: It is immune to the air defenses of Ukraine. The Kinzhal, an air-launched variant of the Iskander short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) that Putin unveiled in 2018 as a cornerstone of a modernized Russian arsenal, has also been used more frequently in Ukraine.
According to a CSIS report, “Russia likely developed the unique missile to more easily target critical European infrastructure.” The missile’s speed, in addition to its erratic flight trajectory and high maneuverability, “could complicate interception.”
Geolocation of military operations
Given that Ukraine is currently going through the worst of what turned out to be a mild winter, when Putin had hoped that attacks on energy and electricity supplies would break morale, the benefits to Russia of using scant supplies in aerial bombardments appear limited and appear unlikely to shift momentum in the war.
“It is extremely damaging to Ukraine, but is it likely to prevent them from continuing the war? Bronk responded, “No, absolutely not,” evaluating the use of such strikes.
However, it is not unusual for a disjointed Russian war effort to employ a frustrating, but ultimately fruitless tactic.
Bronk stated, “They don’t really have any military plan other than outlasting the West’s ability to support the Ukrainian military.” All in all, simply try not to lose on the combat zone for a considerable length of time that the West becomes weary of supporting them.”
The strikes don’t change the war’s balance, but they do serve as a mental reminder of Russia’s military threat in that context.
As the ISW suggested, Putin may be primarily targeting domestic audiences with the strikes, as Russia’s hawkish military community increasingly complains that his commanders have been too “soft” or ineffective in Ukraine and have struggled to deliver lasting blows.
The ISW wrote, “Putin likely attempted to offset these narratives with another missile attack, using advanced missiles to guarantee some damage in Ukraine, similar to those Russia conducted in the fall of 2022.”
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