Russian President Vladimir Putin announced earlier this week that a mysterious new intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) was tested in an attack on Ukraine Defense analysts warned this could pose a significant threat.
Putin said the name of the missile was “Oreshnik,” which translates to Hazel Tree.
The missile was used on Thursday to hit a military facility in Dnipro, a central city with about a million inhabitants.
Local officials said a rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, as well as several houses, were damaged in the attack, but no deaths were reported.
Ukraine’s main intelligence directorate said it was fired from the Kapustin Yar 4th Missile Test Range in Russia’s Astrakhan region, and flew 15 minutes before reaching Dnipro. The missile carried six non-nuclear warheads each carrying six submunitions and reached a speed of Mach 11, the report said, adding that test launches of a similar missile were carried out in October 2023 and June 2024.
Putin described the IRBM as a hypersonic ballistic missile that can travel ten times faster than sound.
According to reports, the Oreshnik has a range of 5,000 km (about 3,100 miles) and is designed to be difficult to intercept.
The test firing of a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in March 2024 (Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense/AFP via Getty)
The US Defense Department said the missile Russia fired was based on the RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which can carry an 800kg warhead and has a range of between 2,000km and 5,800km (approximately 1,200 miles to 3,600 km). miles).
The Oreshnik appears to have multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRV), which are warheads that detach from the missile, allowing operators to increase the amount of destructive power of each missile.
The US has done that “de-MIRVed” the deployed ICBMs to a single warhead to comply with New Start, a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. But Russia continues to develop ICBMs with MIRV technology.
If the Oreshnik is armed with MIRV technology, or maneuvers re-entry vehicles (MARV) that enable precision strikes, “it would pose a substantial threat to both civilian and military targets,” said James Bosbotinis, an expert on defense and international affairs.
“Oreshnik will be a dual-capability system, that is, nuclear and conventionally armed,” he said i.
Read more about Taz Ali’s Oreshnik missile here.
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