The Pentagon said there was no point in using hypersonic weapons in Ukraine by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
The Pentagon does not understand why Russia used hypersonic weapons during a special operation in Ukraine, a senior military official said. In his opinion, Moscow wanted to send a signal to the West and Kiev in this way. The head of the Ministry, Lloyd Austin, indicated that he did not consider the use of the Dagger complex to be a factor radically changing the situation. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation previously stated that the use of the "Dagger" confirmed its effectiveness in destroying highly protected special objects.
The US authorities do not understand the meaning of the use of hypersonic weapons by the Russian military in Ukraine, a high-ranking Pentagon official said.
"To be honest, this is in some sense a puzzle, because it is not entirely clear why a hypersonic missile is needed, fired not from such a great distance to hit the building," the official said, quoted by The Hill newspaper.
He did not rule out that in this way Russia wanted to send a signal to the West and Ukraine and get an additional argument in the negotiations between Moscow and Kiev on a settlement.
A defense official told The Hill that the US authorities cannot "refute or independently confirm" the fact that Russia is using hypersonic weapons in Ukraine, but they allow such a possibility.
In the US, they do not believe that the "Dagger" will change the situation
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin indicated that he did not consider the use of the Dagger complex to be a factor radically changing the situation.
"I would not consider the use of hypersonic missiles as a change in the rules of the game. I think the reason he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] resorts to using this type of weapon is because he is trying to give the situation some momentum," Austin said in an interview with CBS.
At the same time, American leader Joe Biden called the hypersonic weapons used by Russian troops in Ukraine "significant".
"This, as you know, is a weighty weapon. But with the same warhead as any other missile, there is not much difference from it, except that it [such a missile] is almost impossible to stop," Biden said.
The first use of the "Dagger" against a real target
The official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said earlier that the Russian military on March 20 struck a large fuel and lubricants storage base in the village of Konstantinovka, Mykolaiv region, using hypersonic missiles "Dagger" and cruise missiles "Caliber".
According to him, from the base in Konstantinovka, the main supplies of fuel for Ukrainian armored vehicles were carried out in the areas of combat operations in the south of Ukraine.
This case was the first in the history of the Russian Armed Forces when hypersonic weapons were used against a real target.
He also noted that the Dagger complex is used with a conventional warhead.
According to the representative of the Ministry of Defense, the missiles were also used to destroy underground protected storages of Ukrainian aviation weapons and combat units for the Tochka-U missile systems located in the village of Delyatin in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
According to Konashenkov, the underground arsenal in Ukraine was destroyed by a Dagger from a range of more than 1 thousand km. "The flight time of a hypersonic missile was less than 10 minutes," the general said.
Daria Klester
