Thread by @cameron19460429

Time for an air defense thread regarding the kinzal and the capability’s of western air defense systems with these kind of targets. Pictured below is the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal which is an air launched version of the 9K720 Iskander-M ground launched ballistic missile.

This missile travels at hypersonic speeds > Mach 5 for part of its flight. However it is not a modern hypersonic in the same sense as highly maneuverable hypersonics that can evade modern air defense systems ex glide maneuvering glide vehicles or ramjet/scram jet cruise missiles.

This makes it a relatively standard target for the patriot system. Which regularly downs short and medium range ballistic missiles in the Middle East that have a speed greater than Mach-5 for part of their flight profile. A common example that the patriot downs is a burkan-2H.

The burkan 2H has a range of over 620 miles with its large payload and much further as the payload is decreased. A variation of the burkan or Zulfiqar ballistic missile was launched at U.S forces at al dhafra in the UAE who took it out with a patriot interceptor Jan 22,2022

This missile was traveling greater than Mach-5 for a portion of its flight and likely had an apogee of around 290 miles and a potential top speed of Up to Mach 7.3 making part of its flight hypersonic. This proves patriot has a history of taking out “hypersonic” objects.

The patriots pac-3 and pac-3 MSE missiles are the most effective patriot munition to use against these fast moving ballistic missiles and are more than capable of intercepting them if launched from a good location to defend from.

There’s also a myth concerning how effective patriot is. Much of it stemming from some failures during the first gulf war. For example Iraqi SCUDs would break into pieces due to poor build quality and the debris would unintentionally act as a decoy for patriot intercepts.

The older patriot missiles were also more optimized against aircraft and while shooting down ballistic missiles was something they could do,they were not optimized for it. And both the actual patriot radar and the missiles own target Discrimination have improved exponentially

Over the last few decades patriot has experienced many software upgrades to fix bugs that caused interception issues with fast moving missiles. And it’s also got all new sensors and brand new interceptors that are optimized for ballistic missile targeting like pac-3 MSE.

Meaning despite maintaining the patriot name it’s a completely different system than the one that had issues in the first gulf war. And is one of the most capable defense systems against SRBM’s and MRBM’s on the planet. Having downed them consistently for the last 15-20 years.

Much of this is owing to the pac-3 missile which itself is an incredible feat of engineering. And it’s important to note the patriot isn’t perfect but it is very effective unlike many uninformed claims. Pac-3 info for reference. rocket.com/defense/missil…

There’s often a myth where people expect air defense to be perfect. But In reality it’s such a complex task with so many variables where that isn’t the case. If a system is 80-90% successful it’s among one of the best on the planet. It’s constantly being refined in a cat&mouse gm

But patriot is more than capable of intercepting Kinzal in the right circumstances. And people calling the patriot useless or bad are completely mistaken. As are the people that claim kinzal can’t be taken down merely because it’s technically hypersonic due to a speed > Mach 5.

Also note many patriot failures also stem from poor training or awareness like some of the failures we’ve seen in Saudi Arabia. which overall has used the system well but had some high profile cases where they didn’t use patriot correctly and integrate their AD network correctly.

@John_A_Ridge @DefenseBulletin @Planet__Claire @Mr_Trilobite @HelloMrBond @ForkFliedLice. Not my best thread but just wanted to put this out there with the extreme amount of disinfo on air defense capabilities I’ve seen floating around today.