Ukraine is facing an invasion from the east. The second biggest country on our continent with an area of nearly 604 thousand square kilometers is being conquered by the Russian army from several directions. The breadbasket of Europe has been turned into a giant warehouse of military equipment of all kinds.
Due to their shared history, both sides are using similar technology from the Soviet era. Howitzers, for example, often face each other, which differ only in the varying degrees of modernization and, most importantly, the much-publicized markings on Russian vehicles.
While Russia (so far) dominates the skies and wins in destructive missile power and quantity, the Ukrainian defences are nevertheless bolstered again by anti-aircraft and anti-tank small arms complexes from the West, Turkish drones and, undoubtedly, by military intel from NATO and the US. Let’s take a look at some of these weapons in the following few chapters.
Some Kalibr cruise missiles have also attacked Ukraine. According to Bellingcat, the Russians have used them, for example, to hit an administration building in downtown Kharkiv.
In this case, according to the analysis of security camera images, it was likely the dreaded Kalibr version 3M-14. There are several Kalibr missiles for destroying naval (3M-54), submarine (91RE) and land-based (3M-14) targets, and it’s a sort of summary answer to the US tomahawk.
Kalibr missiles have a top speed of up to Mach 0.8-2.9 (depending on design); thus, some can exceed the speed of sound many times over at various stages of flight. The propulsion is handled by a jet or rocket engine. The devices can carry a warhead with up to 500 kg of explosives (including nuclear) that can hit a target from hundreds of kilometres to 2 500 kilometres. This is quite a wide range of specifications, again depending on the specific model and purpose of the missile. In fact, a Kalibr-M modification with a range of 4 500 kilometres is under development.
Subsonic calibres intended for ground targets and with a range of hundreds of kilometres are attacking Ukraine.
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