The Ch-47M2 Kinzhal ("Dagger") hypersonic missile is one of the most fearsome additions to the Russian Air Force.

The rockets, which are around eight meters long, fly extremely fast and extremely high, but remain manoeuvrable, according to Russian information.

According to NATO, they can hardly be intercepted with conventional air defense or missile defense.

The western alliance has dubbed the new Russian weapon AS-24 Killjoy (“spoilsport”).

President Vladimir Putin publicly introduced the “Kinzhal” missiles as one of several superweapons in his March 2018 address to the nation.

According to him, the new rocket should reach up to ten times the speed of sound.

So far, "Kinzhal" missiles have been used primarily for maneuvers - most recently a few days before the invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.

The "Kinzhal" is fired from high altitude by MiG-31 interceptors.

Only at a safe distance from the aircraft does its own rocket engine ignite.

It first carries the "Kinschal" up to 20 kilometers high, where the rocket has to withstand high friction temperatures, and then down to the target.

When launched from a MiG-31, the weapon system has a range of up to 2,000 kilometers, according to Russian information.

Can carry nuclear warhead

The "Kinschal" carries up to 480 kilograms of explosives or a nuclear warhead.

The missile could thus attack important infrastructure in Europe, such as airfields, wrote the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Large NATO ships on the Atlantic could also become targets.

The USA and China are also working on the development of hypersonic missiles.

NATO also lists research in Britain, France, Germany, Australia and India in a 2020 paper.

Part of it is about defending against such missiles.

Because the new weapon class creates strategic uncertainty: is a conventional missile flying at me so quickly, or is it a nuclear attack?

"Hypersonic missiles, with their novel combination of speed and maneuverability, can overcome all current missile defense systems and radically reduce the reaction time of the attacked actor," wrote the Munich Security Conference in its 2019 report.