What’s the state of Russia’s missile arsenal?
LA TimesRussian jets fly over Red Square during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow on May 7, 2021. Some analysts believe Russia could be running down its stockpiles of long-range precision weapons as the nearly 8-month-old war drags on and sanctions hit its economy, forcing it to resort to less-accurate missiles. When the Russian military unleashed missile attacks across Ukraine starting Monday, it used the entire range of its long-range precision weapons: the Kh-55 and Kh-101 cruise missiles fired by strategic bombers, the sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles and the ground-launched Iskander missiles. Russia’s repurposing of air defense systems and anti-ship missiles suggests it is running low on more advanced missiles that are intended to hit ground targets, said Ian Williams, a fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. But two officials said U.S. government analysts had noted with interest that Russia had used cruise missiles, and not less-expensive, shorter-range artillery or rockets, in the aftermath of the Kerch Bridge blast.