Key Points and Summary – Russia’s air-launched Kinzhal—derived from the Iskander—dives toward targets at hypersonic speed and now uses new terminal maneuvers that slash Ukraine’s Patriot intercept rate.
-Officials say kill rates around Kyiv fell from roughly 37% in August to about 6% in September as Kinzhals/Iskanders executed late pull-downs and lateral jinks, often masked within mixed salvos. Ukraine is answering with Lima, a homegrown electronic-warfare system that spoofs satellite guidance.
MiG-31 Russian Air Force. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-Operators inject a patriotic “Our Father Is Bandera” audio payload to corrupt navigation data, pushing missiles off track. Tailored to frontline realities, Lima has reportedly outperformed foreign kits against Russian guided bombs—and now aids Kinzhal defense.
Mach 10 Kinzhal Hypersonic Missile Has a New Foe
WARSAW, POLAND – Russia’s Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is one of the most difficult missiles Ukraine must defend against. The Kinzhal flies at altitudes of up to 15.5 miles, and in its terminal phase, it descends as fast as Mach 5.7. In fact, many sources claim it can hit Mach 10.
The 4.7-ton missile is a modified version of the Iskander-M intermediate range ballistic missile. But instead of being fired from a ground-based transporter erector launcher, it is carried and launched via aircraft—from a modified variant of the Mikoyan MiG-31 interceptor, the MiG-31K, or the Tupolev Tu-22M3 bomber, which can carry two Kinzhals.
The missile carries a 1,000-pound warhead that it can deliver from a distance of 300 miles. Its speed makes it a difficult target for even the most capable air defense batteries Ukraine possesses. The U.S.-made Patriot systems in particular are finding it difficult to intercept the high-flying Russian missile.
More recently, Russia’s Aerospace Forces have taken additional steps to make the Kinzhals even more elusive.
Exercise Artemis Strike is a German-led tactical live fire exercise with live Patriot and Stinger missiles at the NATO Missile Firing Installation in Chania, Greece from Oct. 31-Nov. 09. Over 200 U.S. soldiers and approximately 650 German airmen will be participating in the realistic training within a combined construct, exercise the rigors associated with force projection and educate operators on their air missile defense systems. The 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command will deploy, operate and fire live missiles within a tactical scenario, under Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe operational readiness evaluation criteria.
German soldiers assigned to Surface Air and Missile Defense Wing 1 fire the Patriot weapons system at the NATO Missile Firing Installation (NAMFI) during Artemis Strike Nov. 7 in Chania, Greece. Artemis Strike is a German-led multinational air defense exercise. German soldiers Over 200 U.S. soldiers and approximately 650 German airmen will be participating in the realistic training within a combined construct, exercise the rigors associated with force projection and educate operators on their air missile defense systems. (Photo By Officer Candidate Sebastian Apel, Air Defence Missile Group 24)
According to a Financial Times investigation, Russia upgraded the terminal phase flight profile of both the Kinzhal and the 9K720 Iskander-M. The modifications succeeded in reducing the interception rate of Ukraine’s Patriot installations around Kyiv.
Ukrainian and Western military officials who spoke to the FT said the kill rate against these missiles dropped from about 37 percent in August to about 6 percent in September. The drop is attributed to incoming Russian missiles flying a normal midcourse profile before executing a abrupt changes through maneuvers that are described as “dives and lateral shifts.”
These elusive trajectories are intended to break radar lock. The modified flight paths are specially devised to defeat the ability of the Patriot’s PAC-3 missile to intercept maneuvering warheads.
Mixing Missiles Up
Another Russian tactic is to include a few Kinzhal missiles in a mix of missiles fired against a target. The slower missiles create cover for the faster Kinzhal, even obscuring it at first. Ukrainian Patriot units often realize too late that they have fired at the wrong missiles.
According to Army Recognition’s analysis of the modifications, “the 9M723 Iskander has long been credited with quasi-ballistic behavior and aggressive endgame agility. It flies lower than classic ballistic arcs, can vary apogee, and reportedly performs pull-ups and lateral jinks that complicate filter stability inside defender radars.
“Kinzhal, derived from the Iskander airframe and launched by MiG-31K or Tu-22M3 aircraft, brings higher terminal velocities, potentially up to hypersonic speeds in the dive, with similar maneuver logic layered on top.
“What appears to have shifted since late summer is not the airframe but the guidance and control software: timing of terminal maneuvers, selection of dive angles, and bias toward track-breaking kinematics designed to arrive inside Patriot’s look angles just as interceptors commit.”
A Different Kind of Musical “Jam” Session
The Ukrainians, in the meantime, have found that one of their most popular strategic electronic warfare (EW) systems, Lima EW, is effective against the Kinzhal, according to the system’s users and manufacturers.
The Lima EW is a domestically developed frontline defense system specifically designed to jam the satellite navigation links used to guide Russian long-range glide bombs. The system replaces incoming missiles’ satellite navigation signals with a popular patriotic Ukrainian anthem, “Our Father Is Bandera.”
The song refers to Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian partisan who fought against the German military in World War II. Bandera was also a Ukrainian nationalist who opposed the Soviet Union’s domination of Ukraine. He was routinely denounced throughout the Soviet era as a “fascist” by the Soviet Communist Party but is regarded as a national hero in Ukraine. Using a song that honors Bandera to jam Russian missiles adds insult to injury for Moscow.
The anthem is effective against the Kinzhal because any nonstandard information provided to a satellite-guided munition via targeted spoofing can introduce navigational error, explained an officer from Night Watch, the unit that operates this jammer.
EW specialists claim this Ukrainian jammer is proving to be more effective than foreign models because it is tailored to battlefield realities. The Lima EW system has demonstrated particular efficiency in jamming Russian-guided bombs compared to Russian and Western systems, according to the same specialists.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of the Asia Research Centre at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
More Military
The ‘Super’ B-52H Stratofortress Bomber Is Already Flying
‘Go Home’: Stealth F-22 Raptor Flew Right Under Iranian F-4 Phantom Undetected
Russia’s ‘New’ PAK DA Stealth Bomber Has a Message for Every Military On Earth
China’s New H-20 Stealth Bomber Has a Message for Any Military on Earth
Mach 2 F-4 Phantom II Fighter Has a Message for Every Air Force on Earth
Swamplaw Yankee
November 14, 2025 at 1:24 am
Mystery un-named specialists populate + roam these op-ed pages like Biden border crossers of 2023-24.
Luckily for Ukraine, specialists of Europe that create missiles only populate France and Ukraine.
Whatever is added to the mixture of spices, a huge wave of Ukrainian good-will hit the Moscow Conurbation area very recently. Finally, the electric power in urban Moscow went out for the first time.
What was the result? The protected Muscovy ruuzzkie who gave up freedom for stability lost their protection. The ruuzzkies suddenly were trapped in their subway +/or elevators. MOSCOW went all dark.
This was a physical tangible manifestation of the collapse of the era of Butcher PUTIN stability. All muscovites suddenly knew that the card deal was shakey, and could collapse on them any time. No one could speak out on media but the unspoken fear spread amongst the common vodka drinkers and candle sellers.
The youth suddenly knew that their parents deal with the FSB to keep silent was no longer in operation. The deal of average muscovites with the FSB to re-start the 1000 year old Genocide of Ukrainians now had a 2025 twist. The ruuzzkie mass abductors, pedophiles of little Ukrainian children suddenly had Ukrainian parents able to for the first time to strike at their table top dancing venues. It was not back to the glory days of 1616 when slavery was legal on every Muscovy home + church corner.
Now, the fear grows in every muscovite inner brain. Those power failures might be as frequent as what they see in far away Ukrainian cities. The vertical deal they cut with Putin is now out of his 100% eternal control. His elite can cover up with any fantasy, but their ‘new’ inner fear of repeat power + utility loss can not be erased. The task of carrying up water up to their Moscow high height hell hole can be evoked by Ukraine any time.
Every Moscow citizen who took free possession of a mass abducted Ukrainian child is in a new math game. After 12 years of “FREE” table top dancing ruuzzkie style, does the slave object suddenly have compensation and reparation cash due them. Who will pay the gold bullion reparation due to the evil cultural Genocide perpetrated on these hundred of thousands of Ukrainian children?
Obviously, the POTUS Obama Democrat Cabal who in 2014 covertly, unilaterally green lit the re-start of the 1000 year old Genocide of Ukrainians. But will 2026 MAGA POTUS Trump be capable or ethical enough to internationally admit that such a episode of White House moral turpitude took place in the 2008-2014 period.
The fear of the WEST is that there is no Leader of the WEST. MAGA POTUS Trump self-abdicated as Leader fighting for Victory of the WEST. But, he may still try to con + delude MAGA supporters as Trump may still push the scam that his self-appointment to betray the Ukraine to the Kremlin Ruuzzkies started by Obama remains a scared duty of a Leader of the WEST.
The Ukraine has initiated a world- shaking epoch with this first Black out of the Moscow urban area. Leaders of all nations watch as a medium power uses its intelligence to overcome the 2014 betrayal by the POTUS Obama. The PRC CCP is shocked and may hold an unscheduled fifth plenium ( or a version of it ) to revise its LONG GAME with its vassal Putin.
The winter of 2026 will need a label depicting a zivilmacht Ukraine that is introducing the Conway value of zero to the fascists in the Kremlin. Ukrainian Fathers demand their mass abducted children receive compensation + reparations. But neither player in this 1000 year old Genocide of Ukrainians has a winning move at this very second in the meat grinder Genocide line.
Neither side has a positive or negative exclusivity as they power out millions of civilians. The new missiles of Ukrainian fathers puts them in the wonderful position of moving the game to zero! The world watches breathlessly as neither ethnic group has a winning move!
The quantum physics over ride still resides with the PRC CCP Xi regime. The billion plus humans in the Xi run “Axis of Evil” means Han intelligence can use a ( mystery) holomorphic function to negate the Conway value of zero!
As I have speculated before, It is way overdue for the HAN Xi regime to quietly cut the cards with Ukrainian fathers, fairly, for a return to 2013. Xi knows that this card deal with Zelensky cuts the MAGA POTUS out of his transparent cheap manipulations of Ukrainian Fathers! This would vault Xi into permanent international relevance as a world Peace maker! And, expose MAGA Trump as a self-appointed con out to steal ancient Ukrainian homes/soil just for the FREE real estate. -30-