Missile Defense Is Quite Effective Even If It Isn't Perfect

Back in the 1980s, when candidate and President Reagan was proposing it, I opposed missile defense programs, not because it wasn't a valuable goal, but because it wasn't technologically viable at the time. Now, it is technologically viable, and while it isn't perfect, it can stop far more than  half of income missiles, greatly reducing the harm of missile attacks, especially conventional missile attacks (as opposed to nuclear missile attack where just one failure to intercept an incoming missile can be devistating).

Ukraine's air defenses shot down six Russian hypersonic missiles as Moscow launched a fresh wave of strikes overnight, according to Kyiv.

Russia launched 18 missile strikes across Ukraine at about 3.30 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in a post to social media.

Six Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were launched from Russian MiG-31K jets, Ukraine's military said, as well as nine Kalibr missiles from vessels in the Black Sea. Several other missiles, including the land-based, short-range Iskander-M, were also fired at Ukrainian targets, Ukrainian authorities said in an update.

"All 18 missiles were destroyed by the forces and means of air defense of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Ukraine's military said.

Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were part of a host of new, advanced weaponry unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018. They are believed to have a range of about 1,250 miles, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think thank's Missile Defense Project, and can carry either conventional or nuclear payloads.

Tuesday morning's barrage was a "complex attack from different directions simultaneously," the head of the Kyiv military administration, Serhiy Popko, said in a statement. "It was exceptional in its density – the maximum number of attacking missiles in the shortest period of time," he added in a post to Telegram on Tuesday. . . .

"A high-precision strike by a hypersonic missile system 'Dagger' in the city of Kyiv hit a U.S.-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system," the ministry added.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for further comment via email.

Earlier this month, Ukraine's Air Force commander, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk, said Ukraine had successfully "brought down the 'unparalleled' Dagger" on May 4, referring to a Kinzhal hypersonic missile, which he said was fired from a Russian MiG-31K. A Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson then told Ukrainian media that a Patriot air defense system had shot down the hypersonic missile. The U.S., Germany and the Netherlands have committed to sending Patriot systems to Ukraine, and they arrived in the country in April.

"Today, our beautiful Ukrainian sky becomes more secure because Patriot air defense systems have arrived in Ukraine," Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a post to social media on April 19.

In a press briefing on May 9, Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the Ukrainian military "did down a Russian missile by employing the Patriot missile defense system," later specifying it was a Kinzhal missile.

From Newsweek in a May 16, 2023 story.