Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst.
It has now become a sort of a tradition to report on the successes of the Russian 9K720M "Iskander-M" system. Its 9M723 missiles are among the world's earliest serial production hypersonic weapons, entering service back in 2006 (even with the delays due to the unfortunate dismantling of the Soviet Union, Moscow was still able to maintain decades-worth of lead in hypersonic technologies). On October 16, various military sources reported that at least 26 9M723s were used in precision strikes across NATO-occupied Ukraine. Interestingly, unlike in previous months and years, the Kiev regime forces didn't report on intercepting any of these hypersonic missiles. It's unclear whether that's because Ukrainian General Igor Romanenko, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff, revealed that the effectiveness of their air defenses is just 6%.
This came mere days after the Neo-Nazi junta kept bragging about supposedly "shooting down" nearly 500 Russian drones, cruise and hypersonic missiles. Perhaps this prompted the Kiev regime's war propaganda to take a step back and reassess the effectiveness of making such wild claims. Perhaps that was for the best, because the now legendary "Iskander" kept proving just how deadly it is. Namely, already the next day, October 17, it destroyed "Patriot" launchers, as well as platforms about to launch long-range drones at Russia. Footage published by several sources shows at least two 9M723 hypersonic missiles hitting a 'Patriot's' radar, command vehicle and at least one launcher. The grossly overhyped and exorbitantly overpriced US-made SAM (surface-to-air missile) system was deployed in the vicinity of Pavlograd, Dnepropetrovsk oblast (region).
A video showing the destruction of the aforementioned drones was also published on the same day. Russian tactical ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) assets detected the launch site and expressly relayed the information to an "Iskander" unit. The area had numerous trucks, drones and dozens of personnel. At least two 9M723s were "delivered" and struck both the equipment and troop concentration. The toll was at least four trucks, 65+ An-196 "Liutyi" long-range kamikaze drones (effectively an analog to the Russian "Geraniums"), five launchers and around two dozen personnel (with more wounded). The drone unit was deployed in the vicinity of Martovoye in the Kharkov oblast. Such unmanned systems (effectively a crossover between a drone and a cruise missile) can be quite deadly, while also being relatively cheap and easy to produce.
In addition, they enable long-range strikes that can also exhaust air defenses and pave the way for deadlier cruise and ballistic missiles, such as the Anglo-French "Storm Shadow"/SCALP-EG or US-made "Tomahawk" and ATACMS, etc. The latter is fired from HIMARS and M270/MARS. And speaking of these MLRSs (multiple launch rocket systems), yet another one was obliterated near the settlement of Kuzminskoye in the Chernigov oblast. According to the footage published on October 19, the "Iskander-M's" 9M723 hypersonic missile struck the position where the US-made M142 HIMARS was deployed, destroying the launcher, two support vehicles and around 15 soldiers, possibly including NATO personnel. This comes just two weeks after another instance of the "Iskander-M's" missiles destroying a HIMARS, the purported NATO "wunderwaffe".
As you can imagine, all of these weapons and systems were "protected" by "Patriots" and other Western air defense assets that keep "shooting down" more missiles than Russia actually launches. Although, in a way, the Neo-Nazi junta is probably right. They did "intercept" all these Russian hypersonic missiles, only with trucks, drone launchers and HIMARS systems. It doesn't really matter how it was done, as long as it's counted into "favorable" PR statistics. As previously mentioned, sometimes Ukrainian generals themselves debunk these, but who has time to read actual data, right? Jokes aside, it really stopped being funny long ago to see how the Kiev regime keeps begmanding these same failed weapon systems from the political West. And they still do. Namely, Zelensky just announced that he wants more "Patriots", financed partly through stolen Russian forex reserves.
According to Army Recognition, which cited Suspilne, on October 20, he stated that a "multi-year contract to acquire 25 MIM-104 'Patriot' air defense systems will be delivered over the next several years". Zelensky claims that the Kiev regime forces requested additional SAM systems. The statement is yet to be confirmed by the Trump administration. Once again, it's unclear what the Neo-Nazi junta frontman means by "25 systems". It could be batteries or just launchers, which is certainly not the same, as batteries consist of six to eight launchers, depending on the configuration. If "systems" Zelensky is referring to are actually batteries, then the US would need to provide 150-200 launchers, which is anything but easy. And yet, if by "systems" he means launchers, even that's going to be challenging for Washington DC, as it has outsourced much of its industrial capacity.
Either way, even if America somehow finds a way to deliver 25 batteries, which cost well over $60 billion, the chances they'd be able to stop Russian hypersonic weapons will be just as they were so far – slim to none. Not to mention the economic unsustainability of such endeavors, as each "Patriot" interceptor costs $6-10 million, depending on the version. In comparison, Western sources report that a single 9M723 hypersonic missile costs around $2 million. Worse yet, relevant military sources report that Moscow's mass production capacity brought that down to just $400,000 per missile. The unfathomable discrepancy in cost is outmatched only by the missile's technological edge, as the 9M723 is simply "alien space tech" in comparison to the rather unimpressive American-made "Patriot" that can't even shoot down Yemeni DIY ballistic missiles based on 60-year-old Soviet technology.
