(FreedomBeacon.com)- Reuters reported last week that the United States estimates Russia is suffering failure rates as high as 60 percent for some of the precision-guided missiles it is using in Ukraine.
US defense officials last week told reporters that the Pentagon assessed that Russia has launched over 1,100 missiles since the invasion began, but did not say how many of them are hitting their targets.
But according to the three unnamed officials who spoke with Reuters, intelligence reveals that while the failure rate varied from day to day depending on the type of missile being launched, sometimes the rate exceeded anywhere from 50 percent to 60 percent of the missiles fired.
Missile failures could include anything from launch failures to a missile failing to explode on impact.
Russia’s air-launched cruise missiles specifically had a failure rate between 20 and 60 percent depending on the day. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Russia has been using two types of air-launched cruise missiles in Ukraine, the Kh-555 and Kh-101.
While Reuters was unable to determine what an average failure rate would be for air-launched cruise missiles, one expert they asked said anything over 20 percent would be considered high.
The revelation may explain why Russia has failed to achieve its basic objectives since the invasion began a month ago, including why it has been unable to neutralize the Ukrainian air force.
US officials believe the recent attack on the Ukrainian military base near the border with Poland that killed 35 people was conducted by air-launched cruise missiles from Russian airspace. One of the officials told Reuters that in this attack, there was a particularly high failure rate.
The officials who spoke with Reuters didn’t provide supporting intelligence for the Pentagon’s assessment, nor did they offer any explanation for what is behind Russia’s high missile failure rate.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has relied heavily on missile strikes. Their bombardments have hit residential areas, schools, and hospitals in multiple Ukrainian cities, including Mariupol and Kharkiv.
