Russia claims to have used its Kinzhal hypersonic missiles for the first time in its invasion of Ukraine.
The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile system was used by Russia to destroy a weapons depot in western Ukraine.
The missiles have been deployed on combat duty with a squadron of fighter jets in southern Russia.
This was the first time that the Kinzhals have been used in combat, and Russia has never admitted using the missiles anywhere else.
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The Kinzhal aviation missile system destroyed a large underground warehouse, according to a spokesman for Russia's defense ministry.
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A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed a Russian missile strike on the Ivano-Frankivsk region of western Ukraine on Friday, but did not give further details.
On Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defence posted a video of what it said was the destruction of the Ukrainian weapons depot by a high precision missile strike.
▫️Destruction of a weapons depot of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by high-precision missile weapons strike. We can see the exact hit of an underground hangar with weapons and ammunition. pic.twitter.com/sKTF46Tdb0March 19, 2022
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The Kinzhal missiles are one of the high-tech weapons Russia unveiled in the last year.
The Russian president has called them an "ideal weapon" and they have been used on Russian aircraft.
Their warhead is usually a high-explosive one, but they can also be armed with nuclear warheads of the same size.
The Kinzhal missiles reach as fast as 12 times the speed of sound after being launched, according to Russian media sources.
Hypersonic is defined as anything faster than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, and it is a challenging regime for engineers.
The Kinzhal missiles are so fast that they are almost impossible to intercept. They are said to perform sharp maneuvers in flight at hypersonic speeds that allow them to avoid enemy missile defenses.
The underground weapons depot in western Ukraine is said to be the target of the latest strike because of the high speed of the missiles.
The United States and China are both developing hypersonic missiles.
National Public Radio reported that the Chinese hypersonic missiles seem to be experimental.
The balance of power in the Pacific could be altered by Russia's Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, according to an article in TheDiplomat magazine.
The Russian Kinzhal missiles are larger and travel at higher speeds than the Chinese air-launched hypersonic missiles, meaning they are a greater threat.
The balance of power in the Pacific could be affected by the deployment of the Kinzhal missiles to Russia's Far East region.
Military experts say the Kinzhal missiles are particularly threatening, but one analyst says the main advantage is psychological.
According to the Russian military analyst and journalist, it doesn't change the battlefield, but it certainly has an effect on psychological propaganda.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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