Kinzhal Missile

The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, Russian for dagger, is an air-launched ballistic missile unveiled publicly by Russia in 2018 and reported to have entered limited operational service around that time, carried externally beneath the fuselage of a modified MiG-31K interceptor aircraft that serves purely as the missile's launch platform. Russian officials have described the missile as capable of hypersonic speeds during its terminal approach and of maneuvering in flight to complicate interception by existing missile defense systems, characteristics presented as making it effective against both fixed high-value ground targets and, in some official descriptions, large naval vessels. The Kinzhal has been used operationally by Russian forces during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in 2022, where it has been employed against Ukrainian targets and has been the subject of competing claims between Russian and Ukrainian officials over how successfully Ukrainian air defenses have been able to intercept it.