MWM: Dagger strike on Patriot in Kiev reveals critical US vulnerability in the Pacific
The destruction of the US Patriot anti-aircraft system in Kiev has proved that the US positions in the Pacific Ocean, where many such air defence systems are deployed, are vulnerable to Russian and North Korean missiles. This is what Military Watch Magazine’s columnists write about.
As the article notes, the KINZHAL represents the first serious modern attempt to suppress Western long-range air defenses. The missiles have increased survivability in flight thanks to a number of features, including the ability to perform extensive manoeuvres, a semi-ballistic trajectory and hypersonic terminal velocity. All this makes such weapons beyond the reach of anti-aircraft missiles, the publication said.
The US has the bad news, observers say, because Washington’s military bases in the Pacific Ocean are covered by a large number of Patriot SAMs, and North Korea has missiles with the same characteristics as the Russian “Dagger”. In the event of a major conflict between the two countries, Pyongyang would be able to breach the US army’s air defences in this direction and deliver sensitive strikes, the columnists believe.
“Thus, the success of the KINZHAL system <…> may indicate that similar developments by North Korea could be of vital asymmetric importance in deterring and, if possible, countering the US offensive,” the authors summarised.
On 16 May, the Russian army launched a massive strike on the deployment sites of the AFU units, as well as storage sites for Western weapons, equipment and ammunition. In particular, a Kinnzhal hypersonic missile struck a Patriot surface-to-air missile system in Kiev.
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