Patriots have intercepted the hypersonic missiles (Kinzhal) before [1][2]. The S-400 is not as invincible as was touted -- there's plenty of evidence of success

Patriots have intercepted the hypersonic missiles (Kinzhal) before [1][2]. The S-400 is not as invincible as was touted -- there's plenty of evidence of successful drone and missile strikes against Russia by Ukraine. And Ukraine is still flying aircraft. Russia's production isn't almighty either. They purchased millions of artillery rounds from North Korea for a reason [3]. And I think a big thing to remember is that NATO has tons of weapons, they just don't have tons of the weapons that are being used in the Ukraine war. The U.S. only fired ~34,000 155MM artillery rounds during the Iraq War (Second Persian Gulf War). [4] And yet at the time the US had millions of cluster bombs in stockpiles [5] The Ukraine war definitely seems to be a wakeup call on western munition production rates and how mass artillery is still important to modern warfare but I don't think that means Russia would really stand a chance against NATO. The real reason the conflict (hopefully) will never happen is nuclear bombs. [1] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/air-defence-systems-repelling-attacks-ukraine-early-tuesday-officials-2023-05-16/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/air-defence-systems-rep... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/05/16/world/russia-ukraine-news https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/05/16/world/russia-ukraine... [3] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/28/n-korea-sent-russia-millions-of-munitions-in-exchange-for-food-says-seoul https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/28/n-korea-sent-russia... [4] https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/02/06/these-marines-in-syria-fired-more-artillery-than-any-battalion-since-vietnam/ https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018... [5] https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/arms/cluster0705/2.htm https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/arms/cluster0705/2.h...