The Oreshnik is a new intermediate range ballistic missile that has never been seen or used before. Ted Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, calls it an “absolutely new weapon.” Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Orseshnik “experimental” and said that the strike was a test fire.
Though intermediate range ballistic missiles like Oreshnik are typically designed to carry nuclear warheads, the missile used in this attack did not: it was armed with conventional warheads.
What is remarkable about the demonstration of the Oreshnik is that it flew at Mach 11, making it a hypersonic missile. Unlike ordinary ballistic missiles, this one seemed to increase its range by gliding parallel to the earth during part of its flight path instead of maintaining the expected inverted U-shape ballistic trajectory.
Hypersonic missiles are very hard to hit with air defense systems. This missile may be even harder to hit because it carries six warheads each of which carries six submunitions, which means that the missile releases 36 warheads, probably with the addition of several decoys. Analysts say that each of those 36 submunitions may take a different trajectory before hitting the same target. That, and the ability of the 36 warheads to overwhelm a missile defense system, make it very hard to intercept all the warheads.
Poster Comment:
The US ight make something like that after 20 years.