Shortly after an unprecedented sequence of mass missile strikes throughout Ukrainian territory on December 29, which is taken into account the biggest missile assault in Russian historical past, Ukrainian Air Pressure Command spokesperson Yury Ignat singled out the capabilities of the Soviet Kh-22 cruise missile which he revealed his nation’s armed forces had persistently been unable to intercept. Ignat said that because the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022 Russian forces had fired roughly 300 Kh-22 and Kh-32 missiles at targets throughout Ukraine – the latter being a modernised variant developed by Russia and sometimes produced by upgrading Soviet-built missile airframes. He said that Ukrainian air defences had not been capable of intercept a single one. Ignat had beforehand said in January: “I emphasise that it’s unimaginable to shoot down Kh-22 missiles with the means we’ve got in our arsenal,” highlighting the missile’s sheer pace as the explanation.
The Kh-22 has been used extensively for strikes on Ukrainian targets attributable to each the sheer dimension of the Soviet arsenals which Russia had managed to maintain in storage in good situation, and as a result of age of the missiles that are nearing their decommissioning dates and thus would should be disposed of whatever the state of affairs in Ukraine. The category first entered frontline service in 1962, however nonetheless has few rivals on the earth when it comes to efficiency. The missiles had been designed for anti-shipping roles to penetrate the multi layered air defences of U.S. Navy provider strike teams, and achieved this with irregular trajectories and a really excessive close to hypersonic pace of Mach 4.6. The Kh-22 allowed Tu-22M bomber models to neutralise enemy warships from very lengthy ranges, and had been produced in great numbers reflecting the scale of the Soviet bomber fleet on the time within the excessive a whole bunch. Though Russia has expanded its capability for the manufacturing of a number of lessons of cruise and ballistic missile to a number of instances the degrees seen earlier than 2022, manufacturing nonetheless stays dwarfed by the scales seen within the Soviet period which has made the preservation of a portion of Soviet cruise missile stockpiles extremely useful in the present day.
The problem posed by Kh-22 strikes has been compounded by a critical depletion of Ukraine’s Soviet constructed air defence community, which provides from the nation’s Western supporters haven’t come near compensating for. Aside from two models of American Patriot missile programs guarding the capital Kiev, one among which was taken out of fee and reportedly severely broken by Russian missile strikes in Might, Ukraine additionally lacks any post-Nineteen Eighties lengthy vary air defence property. Ukrainian officers have persistently requested large new donations of Patriot missile programs, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stating within the spring that the nation wanted 20 programs deployed throughout the nation. This determine was equal the massive majority of the arsenal NATO fielded throughout all member states and was thought of removed from lifelike. The USA has seen its personal air defence capabilities stretched dangerously skinny even with out additional donations to Ukraine, with the state of affairs exacerbated by a surge in deployments to the Center East from October. Extreme air defence shortages within the Ukrainian theatre have resulted in rising effectiveness utilizing tactical air energy and missile strikes towards Ukrainian frontline positions, the place munitions provides on the bottom have additionally turn out to be desperately low, as Kiev prioritises the air defence of main cities.
