Take a look at the essential events, concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your knowledge nugget for today.

(Relevance: The Ukraine-Russia war has been hitting the news headlines often. The UPSC has previously asked questions on various aspects related to this ongoing conflict. In this context, understanding the unique weapons and their usage influencing the war dynamics becomes crucial. Additionally, defence technology is an integral part of the UPSC CSE syllabus.)

Recently, the Ukraine-Russia war took a significant turn when Kyiv deployed British-made Storm Shadow missiles against military targets within Russia. This attack followed the historic use of US-provided Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles on Russian territory, which had been authorized by President Joe Biden.

In retaliation, Russia launched a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) known as “Oreshnik” at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday.

1. For months, Kyiv has been urging its Western allies to supply long-range weapons that can strike deep into Russian-controlled territories. In this regard, the use of Storm Shadow missiles and ATACMS missiles by Ukraine represents a significant development in the ongoing war.

2. Recently, Russian military bloggers on Telegram also shared images of alleged Storm Shadow missile fragments found near Marino, a village in Kursk. Local governor Alexei Smirnov claimed that Russian air defenses intercepted two missiles. In response to the attack, Ukraine’s air force official Yuriy Ignat alluded to the incident, stating there had been a “strong storm” in the Kursk region.

1. Storm Shadow is a long-ranged, air-launched, conventionally armed, deep-strike cruise missile. It is developed by the UK and France. It can travel up to 250 kilometers (155 miles) and is designed to destroy tough targets like bunkers and ammunition storage.

2. It weighs 1,300 kg and is 5.10m long. It’s capable of being operated day and night in all weathers and designed to destroy high-valued stationary targets such as airbases, radar installations, communications hubs and port facilities. The report by Airforce Technology mentioned that what makes this missile a stealthy weapon is the combination of its long-range, low altitude and supersonic speed.

3. Equipped with the fire-and-forget technology, Storm Shadow, also offers high precision deep strike capability as it features a sophisticated navigation system that includes inertial navigation (INS), global positioning system (GPS) and terrain reference navigation for better control over the path.

Source: UN Office of Disarmament Affairs (Note: This categorisation is not fixed.)

Cruise missiles are unmanned vehicles powered by jet engines that can be launched from ground, air, or sea platforms.  Examples of cruise missiles are BrahMos,Tomahawk,Kalibr, AGM-86 ALCM and JASSM. 

The cruise missiles fly at a low distance from the ground while the ballistic missiles follow a parabolic trajectory. Ballistic missiles are easier to track since they have a standard parabolic trajectory, as compared to cruise missiles which can fox air defence systems due to their manoeuvrability.

4. The missile features the BROACH (Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented CHarge) warhead — a high-technology warhead, which first cuts the surface of the target, penetrates into it and then explodes. Storm Shadow is operated by Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafale, Mirage 2000 and Tornado.

ATACMS

1. Russia also alleged that debris from a US-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) has fallen in the Bryansk region of the country.

2. Notably, weeks before leaving the White House, Joe Biden provided authorisation to Kyiv to use the ATACMS, inside Russia.

3. ATACMS is a surface-to-surface ballistic missile capable of hitting targets at up to 300km (186 miles). This range means that Ukraine may now be able to hit targets inside Russia, including Russian-annexed Crimea.

4. The missiles are fuelled by solid rocket propellant and follow a ballistic path into the atmosphere before coming back down at a high speed and high angle, making them difficult to intercept.

‘Oreshnik’ Missiles 

1. The Ukraine Air Force initially claimed that Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which is nuclear-capable and has longer ranges than intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs). This assertion was quickly disproven.

2. Russia confirmed that it launched an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile. Putin referred to the missile as ‘Oreshnik’ (the hazel). In addition to the “Oreshnik” missile, Russia deployed a Kinzhal hypersonic missile and several cruise missiles during the attack.

3. Ukraine’s Security Service showed The Associated Press on Sunday wreckage of the new experimental ballistic missile, which struck a factory in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

4. The fragments of the Oreshnik, which the Pentagon said is based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile -– have not been analyzed yet.

5. According to Western sources, the missile fired by Russia boasts a range of as much as 5,500 km, enough to effectively target every European city from Russian territory.

1. India is considered among the top few nations when it comes to designing and developing missiles indigenously, although it is way behind the US, China and Russia in terms of range.

Amitabh Sinha underlined that the MIRV technology has enhanced the potential of the missile by allowing multiple warheads to be loaded on a single missile delivery system. Each warhead can hit the same location or be guided to hit different targets simultaneously. Contrastingly, the traditional missile carries a single warhead or a weapon to hit a target. Hence, MIRV capability development has marked a significant upgrade for the Indian missile system.

2. In a major boost to its military prowess, India has successfully flight-tested a long-range hypersonic missile off the coast of Odisha, which was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

3. It is designed to carry various payloads for ranges greater than 1,500 km. The term “Hypersonic” refers to a speed at least five times the speed of sound (also called Mach-5).

4. The two types of hypersonic weapons systems are Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGV) and Hypersonic Cruise Missiles. The HGVs are launched from a rocket before gliding to the intended target while HCMs are powered by air-breathing high-speed engines or ‘scramjets’ after acquiring their target.

(Sources: Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine, India successfully test-fires long-range hypersonic missile, What are Storm Shadow missiles?, Roundup of world news this week)

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