On Friday, forces under command of Vladimir Putin moved in on the capitol of Ukraine, Kyiv. Ahead of the tanks, Russian military deployed a barrage of 3M14 Kalibr missiles into the city of 3 million civilians. They caused “many casualties.”
Kalibr not ‘any old missile’
According to pundits who follow these things, “it wasn’t any old missiles that Ukraine was using, it was Kalibrs.” More specifically, the “3M14 Kalibr is a Russian land-attack cruise missile and an improved version of the 3M-14E ‘Club’ LACM.”
It has an impressive range of 932 to 1553 miles. That’s one of the reasons it’s become “a mainstay in the Russian Navy’s ground-strike capabilities.”
So far, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has counted at least “30 examples” of the 3M14 Kalibr being used in Ukraine. The weapon was heavily field tested by the Russian Navy during the Syrian Civil War.
It’s considered by the rest of the world “one of the most important and lethal in the Russian army.”
The Kremlin loves this brand of missiles so much because they’re really versatile. They have the advantage of portability.
They “can be fired from a common vertical launch system that can be deployed from many types of warships and submarines. Warships the size of small vehicles can even be equipped with Kalibr turning the most discreet of vehicles into powerful war machines.”
Significant offensive capability
A “high ranking Russia defense industry official” confirmed to Missile Threat that “Kalibr provides even modest platforms, such as corvettes, with significant offensive capability.” Land attack missiles add “a significant ability to hold distant fixed ground targets at risk using conventional warheads.”
The Russian Navy can’t get their hands on enough of them because they “profoundly” change their “ability to deter, threaten or destroy adversary targets.”
A year ago, last January, “Ukraine claimed that Russia was behind cyberattacks on the nation’s government websites.” Since then the situation has only escalated.
Russia considers the sanctions threatened by the west nothing more than mosquito bites. The real sting is in his Kalibr missiles and Ukraine may be part of Russia by the end of the weekend.
Conventional weapons aren’t the only thing that Kalibr series missiles can be armed with. Rivaling the American Tomahawk, the 30-foot-long rocket has a 500kg payload capacity making it perfect to propel a thermonuclear warhead.
The main targets of the precision strike missile are military bases, ammo dumps and airports.
