The US is confident that Ukraine used the American Patriot air defense system to intercept a Russian hypersonic missile.
CNN writes about this with reference to sources.
According to the interlocutors of the TV channel, the Patriot system successfully counters ballistic missiles, but until last week its ability to stop hypersonic missiles in the air was purely theoretical. Ukrainians demonstrated this ability in real life. According to CNN, the Pentagon treated it as a serious event.
Ukraineʼs statement about the interception of a hypersonic missile is important for several reasons, TV channel sources note.
First, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly advertised the capabilities of Russian hypersonic weapons and stated that they are capable of defeating all existing air defense systems. Secondly, the production of hypersonic ballistic missiles has always been difficult for the Russian Federation, and sanctions only made it more difficult.
Until last week, Russia expected that a hypersonic ballistic missile would definitely hit the target at which it was launched. But the interception cast doubt on that calculation.
And the fact that the missile was intercepted by a Ukrainian crew that was trained in Oklahoma, but had no American advisers on the battlefield, was called "a big return on investment" in the Pentagon, the source said. In his opinion, this event probably caused serious uncertainty in Russia and the question of whether Ukraine has a sustainable means of countering hypersonic ballistic missiles.
- The Air Force spokesman Yurii Ignat stated on April 26 that Patriot anti-aircraft missile complexes will cover strategic objects and critical infrastructure in Ukraine, including substations near the nuclear power plant.
- On the morning of May 5, the Defense Express publication reported that on the night of May 3-4, Ukrainian air defense forces shot down the Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile for the first time. The missile was allegedly shot down from the Patriot anti-aircraft missile complex, and its debris fell on one of the stadiums in Kyiv. Later, they started talking about it in social networks.
- "Babel" tried to confirm this information with the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but they later publicly announced that there would be no comments from the Air Force. They also noted that the information disseminated in the media "will be used by the enemy in the war against Ukraine."