WASHINGTON – Russia has fired scores of guided missiles into Ukraine, but on Saturday it claimed for the first time that it was capable of launching hypersonic speed in an attack on an ammunition depot in western Ukraine. The report could not be independently verified, but if true, the first use of a hyperschall weapon could be in combat.
Hypersonic, commonly defined as weapons capable of flying at speeds above Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, are at the center of an arms race between the USA, Russia and China.
The United States has been pursuing this type of weapon since the early 2000s, focusing on two distinct variants, according to a report released Thursday by the Congressional Research Service.
The first is a “hypersonic glider”, which is launched from a rocket and then separated before hitting a target, and the second is a faster version of a cruise missile, which can be launched by submarines, ships, planes and ground vehicles ginn. the report said. The Pentagon has requested $ 3.8 billion for hypersonic research in fiscal year 2022.
The report notes that the Ministry of Defense has shown a growing interest in developing these weapons, in part due to advances between Russia and China. These countries “have a number of hypersonic weapons programs and may have deployed operational hypersonic gliders – potentially armed with nuclear warheads,” according to the report.
A spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that hypersonic missiles, called Kinzhals, had destroyed the underground depot that stored Ukrainian missiles and aviation ammunition in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine.
Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, confirmed on Saturday that Russian forces had hit an underground camp in western Ukraine, but said the type of missile involved had “not yet been determined.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Russia’s demand on Saturday morning.
In a recent briefing at the Pentagon, defense officials declined to comment on reports that Russian forces used weapons such as cluster munitions – which split in the air and spread smaller bombs – and thermobaric explosives, which produced more powerful and longer-lasting explosive waves. create. than traditional high explosives.
But they offered a running number of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and surface-to-air missiles fired by Russian forces. On Wednesday, a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the war in Ukraine, said Russian troops had launched more than 1,080 rockets since the war began on February 24.
Ivan Nechepurenko in the Valerie Hopkins Report contributed.
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