ByDavid Hambling,
Senior Contributor.
The Kinzhal is one of Russia’s most modern weapons, a hypersonic missile ahead of anything fielded by the U.S. And while Ukraine has had some success downing them with Patriot missiles, recent modifications have helped Kinzhals to evade interceptors. Military officials who spoke to the FT said the intercept rate dropped from about 37 percent in August to about 6 percent in September.
In theory this leaves an open goal for the hypersonic missiles. But instead of hitting their targets, Kinzhals having recently been coming down at Mach 5+ and smashing into empty fields.
Ukraine’s Night Watch unit say their Lima Electronic Warfare systems is sending the Kinzhals astray, using a technique known as spoofing. Like a matador using a cloak to divert a charging bull, Night Watch makes Kinzhals miss by just enough to prevent damage.
