Western air defense systems will be able to shoot down the warheads of a new Russian missile, said Fabian Hoffman, a military analyst and researcher at the Oslo Nuclear Project , questioning Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's claims that it "cannot be intercepted," CNN reports, UNN writes.
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In televised comments on Friday, Putin said the hypersonic ballistic missile known as an "Oreshnik," first launched at Ukraine on Thursday, could not be intercepted by air defense systems. "Currently, the world has no means to counter such a missile, no means to intercept it," Putin said.
However, Fabian Hoffman said that various American and Israeli missile defense systems will be able to shoot down multi-warheads.
"Systems like SM-3 with Aegis or Aegis Ashore, and most likely Arrow 3 and THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) can fully deal with this type of threat," Hoffman told CNN.
Since the Oreshnik missile launches multiple warheads simultaneously, Hoffman said it would require "a lot of interceptors" to shoot it down, which is extremely expensive.
"Cost-effectiveness is more important than the interception process itself," he said.