Russia says it has test-fired another hypersonic missile
The Russian navy on Saturday conducted another test of a prospective hypersonic missile, a demonstration of the military's long-range strike capability amid the fighting in Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry said the Admiral Gorshkov frigate of the Northern Fleet in the White Sea launched the Zircon cruise missile in the Barents Sea, successfully hitting a practice target in the White Sea about 1,000 kilometers (540 nautical miles) away.
[...] Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Zircon is capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound and has a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). Putin has emphasized that its deployment will significantly boost the capability of Russia's military.
Previously: Russia Reports First Combat Use of Hypersonic Missiles
US Tested Hypersonic Missile but Kept It Quiet to Avoid Escalating Tensions With Russia
Related Stories
Hypersonic Missile Possibly Used for the First Time in Combat
Russia claims to use a hypersonic missile in attack on arms depot in Ukraine.
Russia has fired scores of guided missiles into Ukraine, but on Saturday it claimed for the first time that it had launched one capable of hypersonic speed in an attack on an ammunition depot in western Ukraine. The report could not be independently verified, but if true could be the first use of a hypersonic weapon in combat.
Hypersonics, generally defined as weapons capable of flying at speeds over Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, are at the center of an arms race among the United States, Russia and China.
[...] A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said hypersonic missiles, called Kinzhals, had destroyed the underground warehouse storing Ukrainian missiles and aviation ammunition in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine.
Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman for Ukraine's military, confirmed Saturday that Russian forces had hit an underground warehouse in western Ukraine but said the type of missile involved "is yet to be determined."
Russia Reports First Use of Hypersonic Missile
Russia reports first use of hypersonic missile:
The Russian military says it used its latest hypersonic missile, Kinzhal, for the first time in combat during its offensive in Ukraine. The Kinzhal is a nuclear-capable hypersonic aero-ballistic air-to-ground missile.Spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the hypersonic missiles destroyed an underground warehouse storing missiles and aviation ammunition of Ukrainian troops in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Second Kinzhal Missile Fired
Russia has claimed that a 2nd hypersonic missile ("Kinzhal" - dagger) was used on 20 Mar against "a Ukrainian fuel depot in Kostiantynivka near the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv."
US tested hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet to avoid escalating tensions with Russia:
US tested hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet to avoid escalating tensions with Russia
The Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) was launched from a B-52 bomber off the west coast, the official said, in the first successful test of the Lockheed Martin version of the system. A booster engine accelerated the missile to high speed, at which point the air-breathing scramjet engine ignited and propelled the missile at hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and above.
The official offered scant details of the missile test, only noting the missile flew above 65,000 feet and for more than 300 miles. But even at the lower end of hypersonic range -- about 3,800 miles per hour -- a flight of 300 miles is less than 5 minutes.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Opportunist on Monday May 30 2022, @01:57PM (5 children)
Last 3 months taught me Russia apparently uses different numbers than the rest of the world, so it could well be their speed estimates are about as far off as their loss estimates.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @03:38PM (4 children)
When will these missiles be deployed on the Moskva? Asking for a fish.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Opportunist on Monday May 30 2022, @07:58PM (3 children)
The Moskva was not sunk by enemy action. According to their own admission, the Russian navy is just too stupid to sail their flag ship.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @10:47PM
The Russian navy is the smartest and most capable in the entire world. Who else could convert a cruiser into a submarine, let alone in the field?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @11:30PM (1 child)
Someone stole the cork.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:33AM
Oh embezzlement, the ancient enemy of the glorious Russian army.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by driverless on Monday May 30 2022, @02:35PM (11 children)
... to the staggering losses and war crimes behind the curtain! Lookit this missile! Look, shiny. Please look. Please?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @02:48PM (4 children)
you're being silly.
putin doesn't care about people saying "war criminal" or whatever.
he cares about keeping everyone too terrified to do anything that he doesn't like.
somewhat annoying that he isn't honest about what he "likes"/wants.
but it's not his fault our societies are only trained to interact with rational actors.
while he may be mildly interested in keeping information flow within russia in check, he doesn't give a shit about what people outside of russia think or say about him.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @06:12PM (3 children)
Our societies are trained to only deal with rational actors???
LOL.
Politicians? Just name any one of them.
(Score: -1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @06:39PM (2 children)
uhm... they are mostly rational, even the majority of those that act like religious nutcases.
if you follow the money, you will see that they are rational.
the exceptions? simple exceptions, and usually they end up with no real power, despite making noise during elections.
trump? fairly rational. psychopath, self-centered compulsive liar, but rational. most importantly: the government itself remained rational, with various elements blocking his biggest mistakes.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 31 2022, @09:03PM
"Humor is such a subjective thing." [youtube.com] -- Emperor Cartigia
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:47AM
hurray! I got a (-1, insightful)!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @04:48PM (2 children)
Not only, "Lookit this missile!", but also "Lookit the flight path!". If the ship launch was from the middle of Barents Sea the flight path would be roughly south. Changing that heading a bit to the west would put it in Finland, and a little further in Sweden. The reputed landing for the test was in the White Sea which is barely over 100km from the Russia-Finland border.
Since the weapon is designed for both ship and land targets, this is a direct threat against Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Not even thinly veiled...
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @06:25PM (1 child)
Change the heading a little to the east and it will be in Moscow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @06:33PM
Hmmmmm, are you suggesting a way to re-program the missile aiming coordinates?
The launching ship would have to come in closer to shore, Moscow is quite a bit further from the Arctic Ocean coast, and is due-south of the White Sea.
(Score: 2) by bussdriver on Monday May 30 2022, @05:43PM (2 children)
Exactly, this serves no real purpose. They cost a ton of money, they do not have a lot of them so if they use them in the war it's harming them probably more than the enemy. They can easily fly cheap rockets with no proper aiming since they do not care how many people they kill or how much damage they do because they just want the land at this point.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @10:57PM (1 child)
> because they just want the land at this point.
Has anyone looked at the cost of this war to Russia? Any guesses? Make sure to include some estimate of the cost of all the soldiers they have lost.
It might have been cheaper for Russia to have contracted with a bunch of realty companies and just bought the land they wanted. It appears the oligarchs had plenty of money before it was all embargoed. If they were clever (I think the Russians are known for that?) they could have worked quietly over a number of years and not announced their intentions until they owned most of it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @06:56PM
You mean like how Germany finally built their European Empire, aka the European Union? That would require honest work and investment in the future. Putin's regime doesn't believe in those things. And it shows.
For the record, I believe that if Russia had followed Germany's example of using peaceful means that they could have built the empire they dream of, and the world would have been better off for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @02:58PM
The text version of the article, for those who find the main NPR site blocked: Russia says it has test-fired another hypersonic missile [npr.org]. It is from the Associated Press
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @03:43PM
They had 2 missiles and now they are used. Good job Nazi-Russia. Good luck with repurposing the chips from the stolen washing machines to make a third one.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday May 30 2022, @03:51PM (4 children)
If Putin has a real hypersonic weapon that he really intended to use, he would have really deployed it in the very real Ukrainian war theater for a real demonstration.
Kind of like incinerating 2 Japanese cities under atomic fire drives the point of nuclear weapons home much more effectively than turning a bit of New Mexico desert into glass.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @04:11PM (2 children)
A Russian bomber fired three hypersonic missiles at the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa on Monday night, Ukrainian officials said, as part of a barrage that leveled a number of civilian targets including hotels and a shopping mall.
It is not the first time Moscow has deployed its Kinzhal hypersonic missile during its invasion, but it does appear to be a relatively rare occurrence.
Russia said it used Kinzhal missiles Ukraine in mid-March -- a claim later confirmed by US officials to CNN -- in the first known use of the weapon in combat.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/europe/biden-russia-hypersonic-missiles-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html [cnn.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @05:50PM (1 child)
Russians are such idiots. Wasting their nonexistent hypersonic missiles on empty shopping malls at night ;)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 31 2022, @09:05PM
They have such grate weapons in their military parades!
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Monday May 30 2022, @06:41PM
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/europe/biden-russia-hypersonic-missiles-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html [cnn.com]
(Score: 2) by Revek on Monday May 30 2022, @04:26PM (2 children)
Did they test it in the Ukraine or are they trying to convince their own people that the phallic objects are better than the wests?
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @07:36PM (1 child)
Remember when a US president called a certain glorious leader 'Rocket Man'?
How we laughed...
Same shit, different glorious leader.
I wonder which of Lil' Kim or Putin is batshit crazy enough to actually start WW3.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @11:00PM
Doesn't really matter. They are both surrounded by people who very much want the gravy train to continue, so as long as those people don't perceive an existential threat (real or not) to themselves then an order to burn the world down would be more likely result in a sudden regime change than nuclear fire. I don't know about Kim, but Putin is very aware of that fact. That's why the long tables.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @05:12PM
They're just as American as you, and after COVID they don't need another business downturn https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/1998/ [nhk.or.jp]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday May 30 2022, @05:54PM (8 children)
"Oh, yes, we totally don't have any of those already. And if we did have them, absolutely none of them would be aimed at Moscow. And you totally don't see my fingers crossed behind my back as I'm saying this."
A truly great military has no need to strut around like a peacock, they just get the mission done and let that speak for itself.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pkrasimirov on Monday May 30 2022, @08:04PM (3 children)
The point of MAD is to let everyone know they are vulnerable to missile attacks. I don't see a problem in that. But making this claim while the field grunts loot washing machines, ipads, and alcohol for own personal use, even at the price of commiting war crimes, makes it look absurd.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday May 30 2022, @08:22PM (2 children)
I mean, Vlad has gone out of his way to remind everyone he has nukes and thus is immune from any external threats from non-suicidal countries several times. As for the US, they have plenty of all 3 of the nuclear triad (subs, missiles, bombers) and everyone knows it.
But on the hypersonics, the only people that seem to be taking this as a serious threat are the people who want the current US political leadership to seem "weak" whatever that means. I'm not sure how crippling a long-time foe's forces without losing a single one of the US's own troops to do it is "weak" rather than "smart" or "straight out of the 36 Strategems playbook". But as far as I can tell those sorts seem to think that how war works is that the leaders of the two sides scream at each other for a while until one of them decides that it's not worth it, which might be what you'd do if you were a chimpanzee but not a human who can think and stuff.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pkrasimirov on Monday May 30 2022, @10:53PM
I completely agree with you. Vlad's way before 24 Feb was intolerant postures and CGI PR. After the date it were hallucinations about great success ("everything goes to plan") and great doom ("existence threatened, ready nukes") at the same time. Now he's back at the PR it seems.
Not sure what crippling at the moment you are talking about, the long-time foe proved already pretty crippled to me. And about the single US troop there are quite a number of foreign volunteers, with the most numerous group from the US.
Screaming is what Vlad does since a while ago because that's pretty much left what he can do anymore. And dreaded nukes, albeit there are speculations not everybody will push the button in the mad case he gives the order.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @11:38PM
The problem is that the once-great empire they admire is failing, sabre rattling is all that it really has left, everyone now knows it, and the fatal wounds are entirely self inflicted. That leaves the supporters and patsies with nothing but straws and the nuclear boogeyman to grasp at. It would be pathetic if innocent people weren't dying for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @11:22PM (3 children)
US has not had a successful war since 1990 and still had to go back a decade later under false pretense, to really get it 'done'.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 31 2022, @02:31AM (2 children)
... if you ignore the Kosovo War, in which the US accomplished its mission with the loss of only a handful of troops and equipment. You could also make a good argument that US intervention in Colombia has proven completely successful.
Although as a Marine buddy of mine points out, if their actions have made it to the news, odds are pretty good they've screwed up.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @04:58AM (1 child)
was there boots on the ground in Kosovo?
then again your buddy is right, sucessful action always less newsworthy, is why Chrimea so quietly became Russian afterall.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday May 31 2022, @05:38AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_war#NATO_losses [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Monday May 30 2022, @06:45PM (3 children)
More scary things to worry about and there's absolutely nothing I can do. Just ignore it and move on. If that nice Mr Putin decides to nuke us there's nothing we can do. Any survivors will have to deal with it.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Monday May 30 2022, @08:06PM (2 children)
I agree, this is how MAD was working so far, and very successfully so, nothing new here.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @11:13PM (1 child)
except that the whole premise of hypersonic is less predictable pathway compared to balistic. a step beyond MAD, if only to good old D.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by turgid on Tuesday May 31 2022, @08:08AM
I suppose that's why we have Trident submarines continuously at sea, listening to BBC Radio 4 on the World Service.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @11:10PM
you didn't "hit" the target if your weapon required more oil coupons to build then it destroyed...?
war is cost-effective manufacturing but for destructive means? (to badly paraphrase metternich?)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @01:21AM (7 children)
The nukes will come into play, just a matter of time.
What we have now are tactical nukes that can strike targets without triggering MAD.
The game has changed.
And anyway, Putin does not need them.
Despite the propaganda that Russia is loosing and loosing...we see that the scorched earth policy is working just fine.
The snake is slowly tightening its grip and will digest its prey no matter what America does, but just in case it gets some stupid ideas...here take a look at our new tech.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @03:39AM
tactical omg lol
why not a moab then? firestorms not good enough without radioactive isotopes? this is some prime ammosexual fetish material
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @07:06PM (3 children)
Bullshit. Any use of a nuclear weapon, tactical or strategic, must result in reprisal in kind or the entire nuclear deterrence doctrine fails.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @07:35PM (1 child)
reprisal in kind, sure, like city for city...but not necessarily MAD.
What happens when Russia nukes a border city in Ukraine to create a radioactive iron curtain?
Will that trigger MAD?
Cause that would be kinda stupid and pretty sure NATO or whoever else is not going to want MAD to start from that scenario.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @03:32AM
The 1964 film Fail Safe [wikipedia.org] ends in a 1 for 1 exchange of cities. It's the same basic scenario as Doctor Strangelove, but done seriously instead of as a comedy. I thought the recurring dreams one of the characters has about being a matador was a particularly interesting metaphor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:54AM
while I don't believe nuclear weapons will be used anytime soon, I do want to comment on your assertion.
there are 3 scenarios:
1. nuclear attack against country that does not have nuclear weapons, and is not in NATO.
2. nuclear attack against country that does not have nuclear weapons but is in NATO.
3. nuclear attack against country that has nuclear weapons.
I can see scenarios where neither 1 nor 2 trigger a nuclear response --- for instance if Trump was president the US would be unlikely to respond for 1 or 2 (no idea about France or the UK).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @07:19PM (1 child)
loose = opposite of tight
lose = opposite of win
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 31 2022, @09:10PM
So, Russia is loosing the tight against Ukraine.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...