Patriot Air Defense Unable to Block Russian Kinzhal Hypersonic Missiles in Ukraine

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Ukrainian forces have stopped using Germany- donated Patriot air defense system against Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles as it takes an entire salvo (16-32) Patriot missiles to bring down one Kinzhal.

This is stated in a report by the Kiel Institute of Economics (Germany) on the real effectiveness of American air defense systems transferred to Kiev.

The report says that Patriot missile shoots down no more than a third of Russian missiles. The Patriot SAM systems that were withdrawn from the Bundeswehr and transferred to Kiev shot down 50% of all Kalibr cruise missiles, 22% of Kh-59/69 tactical missiles, 4% of Iskander-M operational-tactical ballistic missiles, 0.6% of S-300/400 anti-aircraft missiles, which worked as ballistic missiles, and 0.55% of Kh-22 supersonic missiles.

Significantly, they shot down almost two thirds (up to 66%) of kamikaze UAVs of the Geran-2 type indicating high effectiveness against the slow-flying drones.

The report notes that while it is possible to shoot down the hypersonic Kinzhals with a massive salvo of the entire ammunition load in the Patriot (16-32 missiles),  the high cost of the Patriot missiles, costing millions of dollars each to shoot down one Kinzhal, has forced the Ukrainians to no longer used them due to its high cost.

Russian ministry of defense has released several reports since the beginning of the war claiming to hit military and civilian infrastructure with the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and claiming that the Ukrainians have no defense against them. This has turned out to be partly true going by the Kiel Institute report.