The russian air arm also operates a small force of Mig-31K fighters carrying
the new kinzel air launch ballistic missile. the hypersonic kinsel could
complement the subsonic KH-101. where the cruise missile flies low and slow,
the kinzel flies high and fast.
The more different ways the russians bombard ukraine, the more they
complicate ukraine's air defense efforts. Kiev's ground-based air defenses
in theory could shoot down cruise missiles, but lacking the latest equipment
that say the americans possess, they stand almost no chance of intercepting
a speedy kinsel.
The first of the 24 foot long one ton kinzel's was ready for testing in
2017. Russian President Vladimir Putin officially revealed the missile a few
months later in march 2018.
The russian air force began modifying around Mig-31s in at least two
regiments to carry the bulky missile with its thousand-pound warhead. one of
those regiments belongs to the southern military district, whose remit
includes the black sea in Ukraine.
The other regiment resides with the northern military district. For four
years the action was up north as the air force tested out the kinsel in
brutal arctic conditions and extended a network of arctic airfields to
handle the twin engine mig-31, which needs up to four thousand feet of
runway to take off.
After a brief diversion to syria last summer during which amig the 31st of
may have fired a kinzel at rebel forces, the arctic testing wrapped up this
month. It's possible the air force has around 20 kinzel compatible Mig-31Ks
plus enough of the 1200-mile range missiles to arm them and a functioning
targeting process apparently involving Ill-20 surveillance planes.
Whether this token force might join an air war on ukraine as an open
question. A handful of missiles are a proverbial drop in the bucket in a war
that could involve hundreds of thousands of troops and thousands of tanks on
both sides.
But the kinzel with its unique flight profile could give kremlin planners an
option for punching through to the most heavily defended targets such as
command posts and air bases.
"I think kinzel is probably focused on higher value targets such as command
and control, bases and potentially large ships," said Han Christensen, a
nuclear expert with the federation of american scientists in washington
DC.
If there's a silver lining for the ukrainians it's that the Kinzel regiments
could run out of missiles on day one of an intensive air war. That wouldn't
mean an end to the bombardment of course.
In addition to a large stockpile of KH-101s, the kremlin can draw on a wide
array of other weapons in order to strike at ukraine from far away. Ship and
submarine fired caliber cruise missiles of course and a bunch of different
ground-launched ballistic missiles including the new hypersonic missile that
kinzel possibly derives from the Iskander.
