FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Russian Defense Ministry Airs Test Demonstration of Kinzhal Hypersonic Ballistic Missile
March 11, 2018 (EIRNS)—The Russian Defense Ministry reported today that a Russian MiG-31 interceptor jet made a training launch of a Kinzhal aeroballistic hypersonic missile, which hit a target on the test range, TASS reported.
“A MiG-31 fighter crew of the Russian Aerospace Forces made a training launch of a hypersonic missile of the Kinzhal high-precision air missile system in the predetermined area,”
the Defense Ministry said. The MiG-31 departed from an airfield in the Southern Military District within the framework of a testing air alert. “The launch was normal; the hypersonic missile hit the preset target on the test site,” the ministry continued.
The airborne-launched Kinzhal (“Dagger”), which President Putin mentioned among a new group of weapons systems in his March 1 annual address to the Federal Assembly, has an effective range of 2,000 km, and can travel at speeds up to Mach 10. It is reportedly equipped with its own radar detection, which provides the missile complex with complete independence and operational activities, making it highly maneuverable.
The ministry press release states the Kinzhal system has been tested 250 times in test flight sorties, under all sorts of weather conditions, during day and night, since the beginning of 2018. The Kinzhal is not just a concept; it is being evaluated for operational ability.
RT’s coverage today included a three-minute Defense Ministry video, which shows an actual Kinzhal test run, from the moment the pilots are scrambled to the high-altitude release of the missile and its firing, to the MiG-31 fighters landing, and interviews one of the pilots.
To the delusional doubters in the West, it calmly makes the point that President Putin announced in his March 1 speech: “nobody really wanted to talk to us about the core of the problem, and nobody wanted to listen to us. So listen now.”
President Putin stressed that these new weapon systems, which render practically useless the U.S. BMD system, are an overture for peace, and U.S.-Russian discussion.
These new weapon systems, which involve lasers and effectively in-flight, plasma-forming fronts around some of the systems, have potential enormously revolutionary benefits for the civilian physical economy
