Not according to multiple media sources. I'll just drop the wiki on the Kinzhal here.
A few things I picked up from reading several news reports. US officials think that Russia is running low on precision guided missiles, which is why they used this, in spite of not having that many of them and the fact it is still being tested.
The original source of information on the missile's capabilities came from Putin and the Russian government. It's unclear if any it has been corroborated by US intelligence.
Nonetheless, media everywhere is reporting that this missile is evasive and cannot be intercepted. So if you've got a better source, please link it. If the media is getting this wrong, I'd like to know why.
My sources have been various reports\analysis from multiple government reports, think tanks and various organizations over the past 25+ years of me having weird hobbies.
Gonna be a bit time consuming to start digging up a lot of that stuff and getting it cleaned up for readability.
My goto source is off the top of my head.
If I have go and dig all that shit up, I'm going to edit that wiki page myself since plenty of reporters are using that as one of their sources in their reporting.
That and the Kinzhal is an air launched Iskander-M and it is considered an ALBM (air launched ballistic missile).
Kinzhal's claim to fame is that it can be carried by a MIG-31's. The big change is the launch system (the Mig) not the missile itself. This is equivalent to the old days when we moved from silos to mobile launchers. We had the same sort of "OMG We are defenseless and we are all going to die attitude" when asking for defense project money.
Iskander big claim to fame was integration of GLONAS for targeting
It's predecessor used onboard radar and "stuff" to find targets.
the predecessor of its predecessor is the SCUD.
The brochure says "zig zag" and maneuverable.
The reality is that the maneuverable part is just small course corrections to keep it pointed at the glonas coordinate and that on unpowered craft....maneuver = drag
Drag creates heat and slows you way the fuck down.
The big scary monster are air breathing hypersonic missiles. Missiles that are able to maintain speed while maneuvering and have sensors to detect when its detected to trigger maneuver profiles.
That shit is scary. At least until lasers become a mainstay of a layered area defense system.
My original sources could all be bullshit written by hacks so you can take everything I say with a grain of salt.
I can be completely full of shit and based all this off a GI Joe cartoon from the 80's
It doesn't matter.
I do recommend that if you are interested in the the topic to look toward the congressional research service, senate reports and artifacts generated by the DOD in their reporting to the government. Also old standby sites such as fas.org.
All I can say is that it is in our interest to hype up the capability of Russian equipment because it makes the job of requesting funding for projects much easier for the public to swallow.
So I'll withdraw my argument for the greater good.
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