Military experts told why Russia used the Dagger hypersonic complex in Ukraine
For the first time, the Russian Army used hypersonic missiles of the Dagger aviation missile system to destroy objects of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during a special military operation. "Newspaper.Ru" figured out for what purpose it was done.
On March 20, the Russian military department reported that a large storage base for fuel and lubricants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of the settlement of Konstantinovka of the Mykolaiv region was destroyed by a Dagger from the airspace over the territory of Crimea. From this base, the main supplies of fuel for Ukrainian armored vehicles were carried out in combat areas in the south of Ukraine, the Defense Ministry noted.
Prior to that, the representative of the Russian military department, Igor Konashenkov, said at a briefing that the Dagger complex destroyed a large underground warehouse of missiles and aviation ammunition of Ukrainian troops in the village of Delyatin in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the use of hypersonic Dagger missiles by the Russian military will not affect the balance of forces. "I don't think that this hypersonic weapon by itself will radically change the situation," Austin said in an interview with CBS.
It was reported that 10 fighter-interceptors in the MiG-31K "Dagger" modification are on experimental combat duty in the Southern Military District (SE). Since April 2018, they have been on duty over the Caspian Sea. The head of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, Valery Gerasimov, announced in December 2019 that Russia was expanding the geography of the use of the Kinzhal hypersonic aviation complex and it had already been tested in the Arctic.
"If the Dagger struck a really deep fortified storage facility, which was made for storing nuclear ammunition back in the USSR, then perhaps it was the optimal product for this. In fact, its high penetrating ability is demonstrated here. This is the first combat use of what is considered a hypersonic weapon," he told the newspaper.Ru" Dmitry Stefanovich, Researcher at the IMEMO RAS Center for International Security.
Military political analyst Valery Volkov believes that "a strike with a hypersonic Dagger is not a message to Ukraine, but to the United States and NATO."
"There are two aspects. First, Moscow has shown that it can use weapons that the United States does not even have. Secondly, the warehouse where the Ukrainian weapons that were supplied to Kiev by its Western partners were located was destroyed. First of all, Washington. And Russia destroyed American weapons. This is an important message. That's why Lloyd Austin paid so much attention to this blow and this weapon. He didn't comment on anything else like that," Volkov pointed out.
According to Stefanovich, the use of the "Dagger" can accelerate the course of the special operation.
Stefanovic said.
According to military expert Dmitry Litovkin, the Dagger is an analogue of the land-based Iskander, but "it is not possible to adjust the Iskander to certain positions at the moment, even though it shoots at 500 km."
"The Mig-31 fighter can fly at more than 2000 km. Accordingly, the aeroballistic version of the Iskander allows you to throw this missile without even entering the zone where the air defense forces of Ukraine may be located. The Dagger complex is a complex sausage. You can dock anything to it. This is done on a technical basis in a military unit. The task has been set to destroy the bunker - the warhead that will allow this will be attached to the engine. Ten types of combat equipment have been created. Conventional, cassette, there is also an anti-bunker warhead of the tandem principle of application. So they tested it," Litovkin concluded.
Irina Alshayeva
