In an interview with a TASS on 1 March, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Force Colonel General Sergei Surovikin has revealed the secrets about the new KH-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic complex.

According to Sergei Surovikin, the new Russian  KH-47M2 Kinzhal has been developed on the basis of the upgraded Mikoyan MiG-31 aircraft. The new system designed for a strike at targets at a distance of over 2,000 km that allows manned aircraft remain at a safe distance.

“The fast-speed fixed-wing carrier allows delivering a missile with unique performance characteristics to the area of its discharge within minutes. The main propulsion unit mounted on the aero-ballistic missile accelerates a warhead to hypersonic speed within seconds. The missile’s maneuvering at speeds exceeding the speed of sound by several times allows it to reliably breach all air defense and anti-ballistic missile defense systems that exist or are being developed,” the commander said.

The length of the KH-47M2 is about three meters, externally it is distinguished by the air intake of the ramjet air-jet engine projecting at the bottom – a similar configuration is used on the latest strategic missiles KH-101. The speed of the new missile exceeds 4 Mach. One of the carriers of the new weapon also will be the Su-57 fighter.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on Thursday that the KH-47M2 Kinzhal started carrying out its experimental and combat duty missions at aerodromes of the Southern Military District.

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In flight, the KH-47M2 Kinzhal missile is completely covered by the plasma cloud, the cloud absorbs any rays of the radio frequencies and making the missile invisible to radars. But the plasma interferes with the control of the rocket itself, which makes this project very difficult. A large number of military experts reacted with skepticism to the words of Vladimir Putin about combat duty missions.