Three out of five Russian missiles fail to hit targets in Ukraine

A Russian Defence Ministry photograph of an Iskander -M missile launch during exercises in 2017. EPA

Precision-guided Russian missiles have been identified as a weak link in its war in Ukraine, with a failure rate as high as 60 per cent, according to US analysis.

The poor progress of Russia's invasion has frustrated President Vladimir Putin as basic objectives such as neutralising Ukraine's air force have failed to be realised despite the vastly larger armed forces commanded by the Kremlin.

The US officials did not provide evidence to support their assessment and did not disclose what precisely was driving high Russian missile failure rates.

The Kremlin says that what it calls a “special military operation” is going to plan and that Russia will achieve all of its aims. Russia's Ministry of Defence has lauded the professionalism and missile technology of the armed forces. It says claims of failures are misleading propaganda distributed by Russia's enemies headed by the US.

Washington officials told reporters this week that the Pentagon assesses that Russia has launched more than 1,100 missiles of all kinds since the war began. Officials have so far not said how many of those hit their targets and how many failed.

The US estimated that Russia's failure rate varied day-to-day, depended on the type of missile being launched, and could sometimes exceed 50 per cent. A miss rate of 20 per cent is considered poor in modern warfare.

One officials said the intelligence showed that Russia's air-launched cruise missiles had a failure rate in the 20 to 60 per cent range.

Russia is known to have used two types of air-launched cruise missiles in Ukraine, the Kh-555 and Kh-101, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank's Missile Defence Project.

Failures can include anything from launch failures to a missile failing to explode on impact. The US believes Russia fired air-launched cruise missiles from Russian airspace earlier this month when it attacked a Ukrainian military base near the Polish border but there was a particularly high failure rate during this attack. The strike killed 35 people, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Missile attacks have been a feature of Russia's invasion, with Russia announcing strikes against military targets including weapons depots.

The invasion has killed thousands and driven a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million people from their homes. The bombardment has hit residential areas, schools and hospitals in Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv and the besieged port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.