Russian ballistic missiles: what the enemy has and how to shoot it down

"Threat of ballistic missile use" is a message that comes quite often from the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. UNN talked to experts to find out what ballistic missiles are in the Russian arsenal and what can actually destroy them.  

As explained by the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, a ballistic missile flies without aerodynamic lift along the trajectory of a freely thrown body, without the possibility of maneuvering in the air. Its engine operates only 10% of the total flight time (active section), and after it is turned off (passive section), the missile moves under the influence of gravity and air drag.

"As for ballistic missiles, they have S-300s, which are modified, and ballistic anti-aircraft missiles. They have Iskanders, they still have Tochka-U. These may be converted missiles from the S-400 complex. Other missiles can no longer be considered ballistic in the literal sense of the word, because "Dagger" and "Zircon" are still hypersonic missiles, they are conditionally ballistic," military expert Oleksiy Hetman explained in a commentary to UNN . 

Russia also has missile systems capable of launching intercontinental ballistic missiles: "Sarmat, Topol-M, RS-24 Yars, and the Bulava-30 intercontinental ballistic missile.  

S-300/400

S-300 and S-400 missiles are short-range missiles, and they are firing at the border and frontline areas," says Oleksiy Hetman. 

The S-300 and S-400 use 5V55 or 48N6 missiles of various modifications to fire at Ukrainian cities. According to information from the Ukrainian Military Center, these missiles have a semi-active homing head. The warhead of the missiles is filled with ready-made warheads in the form of metal cubes. They can be effective against stationary ground targets, such as unprotected warehouses, personnel and vehicles in open areas, and infrastructure.

The 5V55K anti-aircraft missiles with a range of up to 47 km and the 5V55R with a range of up to 75 km have a 130 kg warhead and a non-contact radar fuze. Thousands of such missiles were produced during the Soviet era. Some of the missiles that had expired had been disposed of by Russia long ago. However, the shelling of Ukraine with missiles of this type indicates that a certain number of such missiles are still in storage. 

Military expert Dmitry Snegirev said in a commentary to UNN that the Russians have about 2,500 S-300s that are about to expire. 

"They are faced with the question of either disposing of them at the expense of the state budget or, accordingly, using them. Given that this is an aeroballistic trajectory that is difficult to shoot down, they decided to dispose of them at the moment they hit the territory of Ukraine," Snegirev said.

Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kharkiv are the most affected. 

"Tochka-U"

This is also a Soviet-era development. It was with the Tochka-U that the Russians attacked the railway station in Kramatorsk in April 2022. Although Russian official sources claim that they do not use this weapon. This tactical system can strike at a range of 120 km. 

"These weapons are highly inaccurate, regularly missing their targets by half a kilometer or more, and should never be used in populated areas," says one of Amnesty International's reports.

But with low accuracy, the missile has a powerful warhead weighing about 500 kg. "The Tochka-U is capable of carrying a cluster warhead, which has a huge radius of destruction - up to 7 hectares. The radius of destruction with a conventional high-explosive warhead is up to 3 hectares. 

"Iskander"

The Iskander operational and tactical system is capable of carrying both ballistic and cruise missiles. 

"Iskander-K is a cruise missile, while Iskander-M is a ballistic missile. The declared range of the ballistic missile is up to 500 km, the flight altitude is 6-50 km, and most of the flight usually takes place at maximum altitude.

"The missile has an inertial navigation system and operates on the principle of ballistic flight. After launching, it moves along a certain trajectory, which includes a phase of acceleration and ascent to a significant height in the upper atmosphere, and then falling under the influence of gravity without active control," explained in KFI.

"Iskanders are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. 

"Kinzhal" 

"Kinzhal" is an aeroballistic missile (some experts consider this missile to be hypersonic - ed.), since an airplane is used to accelerate this missile, and it is the first stage of this missile. After acceleration, this missile falls along the same aeroballistic trajectory and, when it hits the target, falls almost perpendicular to the ground," military expert Valeriy Ryabykh explained in a commentary to UNN. 

As confirmed by KFI experts, the "Kinzhal" is the result of a modification of the "Iskander" missile. The original Iskander components were found in the Kinzhal missiles shot down over Ukraine. 

Typically, "Kinzhals" are launched from MiG-31 and MiG-35 aircraft. 

According to Defense Express, the weight of the explosive in the warhead of the Kinzhal is 150 kg, the equivalent of 240 kg of TNT. It is interesting that the casing of the X-47M2 Kinzhal warhead is so thick that when a downed missile falls, the warhead is knocked out "like a bottle.

"Zircon"

"Zircon is also not a purely ballistic missile, as it is actually a hypersonic cruise missile," says expert Valeriy Ryabykh. 

The enemy does not often use this missile. However, during the attack on the capital on March 25, Zircon missiles were used. 

Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Ilya Yevlash noted that the use of Zircon is likely to indicate the enemy's shortage of weapons.

"In general, this type of missile is anti-ship, and it is used only in certain cases, using different launchers, such as Bastion and Bal. However, we can say that if they had, for example, enough of another type of missile - Kalibr, Iskander, other missiles - they would have used them," Yevlash said.

"The Russians have used Zircon to strike Ukrainian cities before, in particular, during the attack on February 7 this year. 

The fact that the 3M22 Zircon missile was used at that time was confirmed by experts from the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise. At the same time, it was established that this missile had been assembled recently. The experts also found that missile did not meet the characteristics stated in open sources.

According to open sources, the 3M22 Zircon is an anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile adopted in January 2023. It has the following characteristics declared by the enemy: range - 600-1500 km, speed up to Mach 8-9, warhead weight about 300-400 kg, length 8-10 m. The actual speed of the missile is no more than 2,500 kilometers.

"The impact factors do not yet correspond to the stated ones. The assembly is Russian: in some places, numbers are still laser written, and somewhere they are scratched out with nails. Some boards are hand-assembled.

There are new things in some components. The rest is all the same: standard engines, metal quality, component parts are nothing special, nothing revolutionary," said Oleksandr Ruvin, Director of KFI at the time.

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How to shoot down ballistics? 

As Valeriy Ryabykh explained, "only a missile defense system, which we have in limited quantities, can act against missiles such as Zircon or Kinzhal." The Patriot and Franco-Italian SAMP/T systems are examples of such systems. 

Ilya Yevlash, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, clarifies: "But of course, ballistics is a complex missile system, and it is somewhat more difficult to intercept it. However, thanks to our partners, we have the means of destruction, of course, we need more of them, because the frontline is very large.

It's hard to say how many ballistic and conventionally ballistic missiles the enemy has. Experts' estimates vary from 10, for example, Zircon, to hundreds of other missiles. 

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