Russian military forces launched at least seven hypersonic aeroballistic "Kinzhal" missiles, a record number. The carriers of these high-precision munitions are MiG-31K fighters (1 missile) and Tu-22M3 bombers (4 missiles).
The unique "Kinzhal" missile systems entered regular combat duty with the Aerospace Forces (VKS) in August 2022, but the missiles themselves were first revealed in 2018. Despite this, official information about the combat system is still not publicly available.
Open sources indicate that the "Kinzhal" is based on the 9M723 aeroballistic missile from the "Iskander-M" system. The compact projectile carries several types of warheads and can be launched at any initial speed and altitude of the carrier.
The estimated range of the "Kinzhal" is about 2,000 km, and the maximum speed of the missile is up to 10 times the speed of sound.
Earlier, www1.ru explained the difficulty in resuming production of the Tu-22M3 for the "Kinzhal." We examined many factors that led to the cessation of mass production of the bombers.