- Russian forces staged a fancy air raid against Ukrainian defenses in and around Kyiv on Monday night.
- The attack reportedly included an unprecedented variety of Kinzhal hypersonic weapons, drones, and ballistic missiles.
- The mixture of threats was speculated to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses, but authorities report 18 out of 18 missiles were shot down, plus incoming Iranian drones.
Russian forces launched an intense blitz against targets in Kyiv just after 3:00 a.m. on Monday night—the eighth attack on the capital up to now this month. Booming noises going off across town woke residents, as streaks of sunshine rapidly streamed upward, in accordance with the Washington Post. Ukrainian authorities stated that these lights were the thrust nozzles of U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles as they raced to intercept their targets.
The complex air raid reportedly saw several forms of weapons—including hypersonic Kinzhal missiles—converge on town directly from the north, south, and east. The attack was designed to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses with different threats, but Ukrainian officials would later state that the Patriots destroyed 18 out of 18 incoming Russian missiles.
A “Time-on-Goal” Attack
The Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on social media that the attack consisted of six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles launched from MiG-31K fighter jets; nine Kalibr land-attack cruise missiles fired from ships and submarines within the Black Sea; and three “ground launched missiles,” which various news outlets described as Iskander-M short-range ballistic missiles and S-400 surface-to-air missiles.
The attack also consisted of three Orlan-10 and SuperCam reconnaissance drones, and 6 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones. The commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, announced on Telegram that Ukrainian air defenses destroyed the entire attacking missiles and drones. It was not immediately clear if Patriot missiles also shot down the drones.
Last night’s attack was a “time-on-target,” an attack involving multiple weapon systems synchronized so that each one arrive over the goal directly. Time-on-target attacks are supposed to create a single event of remarkable violence, shocking enemy forces with its ferocity. The term was originally invented for artillery barrages.
The usage of high-angle, high-speed aeroballistic weapons similar to Kinzhal and Iskander-M; subsonic, low-altitude Kalibr cruise missiles; and low-speed, low-altitude drones, converging from three different directions, was a tactic meant to emphasize enemy air defenses and the defenders that operate them. Air defenders concentrating on one variety of goal might miss one other one coming at a unique speed and altitude from a wholly different direction. That tactic apparently failed, though.
Enter the Patriot
The workhorse on the Ukrainian side was the Patriot missile system. Ukrainian authorities credited the American anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile system for the capital’s defense. Video taken from the bottom in Kyiv quickly spread across social media, showing a rapid stream of missiles streaking upward from an unseen missile launcher.
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Ukraine reportedly has two Patriot batteries: one which Germany and the Netherlands jointly supplied, and one from america. A Patriot battery consists of an Engagement Control Station (ECS), which houses the human crew; an Electric Power Plant consisting of a diesel generator that powers the battery; a radar station for detecting and tracking enemy targets; and six to eight launch stations. Patriot batteries deploy with up to a few crews per battery to make sure continuous, 24-hour operation over prolonged time periods.
Each of the eight launch stations could be equipped with Patriot PAC-2 or PAC-3 missiles. PAC-2 Guided Enhance Missiles were developed within the Nineties and are used against enemy aircraft and ballistic missiles. PAC-2 has a variety of 99 miles and uses a blast-fragmentation warhead that peppers an enemy goal with shrapnel, allowing the missile to attain an intercept without physically touching it. PAC-3 is a more recent, smaller missile designed to destroy targets, especially ballistic missiles, at shorter ranges by smashing into it.
Each Patriot launch station can have as much as 4 of the larger PAC-2s on the ready, or 16 PAC-3s. Batteries and launch stations can mix and match each types in complex threat environments where aircraft, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones might enter the engagement zone—like Kyiv.
One Patriot battery was reportedly damaged during last night’s engagement. U.S. officials are assessing the damage, and up to now insist it was not destroyed. In response to CNN, Russian forces are detecting radio-wave emissions from the Patriot’s AN/MPQ-65 or AN/MPQ-65A radars and targeting them. This makes it likely that the radar was the component of the system damaged within the attack. The modular nature of Patriot, with different trailers for various parts of the system, likely signifies that a damaged trailer can easily be swapped out with a fresh one.
The Takeaway
Russia gambled that it could terrorize Ukraine with a single, massive strike and humble Western air defenses, all in only 20 minutes. As a substitute, the shoot-down of all missiles and drones has increased the boldness of the Ukrainian military that it could actually handle a fancy attack, and has proven to NATO that the Patriot can easily intercept the vaunted Kinzhal hypersonic missile. The attack can have been aimed toward Kyiv, but it surely blew up in Putin’s face.