MOSCOW, April 6 – RIA Novosti. For the first time ever, Russia has used a number of different weapons in its military. These include the Dagger complex, the world's first hypersonic aviation missile. There is not much information about her. But what is known inspires serious respect for its creators. Details are in the RIA Novosti material.
A blow to the headquarters
For the first time, the combat use of the "Dagger" was officially reported at the very beginning of its. They hit an underground ammunition depot in Ivano-Frankivsk. The missile easily penetrated several meters of concrete floors and detonated inside, completely destroying the strategically important arsenal.
Since then, the Ministry of Defense has reported several times on "Dagger" strikes on critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, but did not provide any details. However, recently it became known about the combat use of this missile, which caused more than serious damage to the APU.
On March 9, 2023, the Russian Armed Forces launched a massive strike with high-precision missiles and kamikaze drones at dozens of targets throughout the country. It was an act of retaliation in response to the sortie of the Ukrainian sabotage group in the Bryansk region. As a result of the strike, the secret command post of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kiev was completely destroyed.
MiG-31 multi-purpose fighter with a hypersonic Dagger missile Image source: © RIA Novosti / Ilya Pitalev
According to media reports, several dozen military advisers from NATO countries - Poland, Great Britain, and the USA - were inside at that moment. Few managed to survive.
Officially, the North Atlantic Alliance did not react to this slap in any way.
Interception is impossible
For the first time, the existence of a hypersonic aeroballistic missile became known on March 1, 2018, when President Vladimir Putin spoke about the Dagger in a message to the Federal Assembly. By that time, the promising shock complex had already been tested for several years. And a little later it became known under which media he was "imprisoned".
MiG-31K interceptor fighters, Tu-23M3M long-range bombers, and in the future, Tu-160 "strategists" are capable of hitting them today. It is not necessary to enter the enemy air defense zone - the maximum range of the missile reaches two thousand kilometers. A half-ton warhead can be either conventional or nuclear.
But the main advantage of the rocket is its enormous speed. The "Dagger" goes to the target at a speed of Mach 10-12 - about four thousand meters per second. That is, the rocket overcomes a hundred kilometers in just a quarter of a minute. This makes it virtually invisible to enemy radar. In addition, the munition is able to actively maneuver on the trajectory, which makes it even more difficult to intercept it.
Intercontinental ballistic missile of the strategic missile complex "Avangard" Image source: © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
In the role of catching up
The Dagger is not Russia's only weapon using hypersound technology. The Russian Navy began to receive high-precision Zircon missiles capable of hitting both ships and ground targets. They will be used by new Russian frigates, and in the future - and submarines.
The RVSN are mastering the Avangard hypersonic complex. Its planning combat unit is invulnerable to existing missile defense systems and is capable of hitting a target in the other hemisphere with almost one hundred percent probability.
The Pentagon recognizes that Russia has pulled far ahead in the hypersonic race. In the USA, several high-speed weapons are being developed at once. But none of the projects has yet been brought to mass production. So the ARRW hypersonic air-launched missile has already failed several test launches. So far, Russia has a serious head start.
