The mysterious “Oreshnik”: what it is and how the missile was developed, which the enemy used to hit the Dnieper River
Kyiv • UNN
russia used a new Oreshnik ballistic missile with multiple warheads to strike the Dnieper River. The missile is a modification of the RS-26 and can theoretically be shot down by Patriot and SAMP/T systems.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had struck a medium-range “ballistic missile with a non-nuclear hypersonic warhead” on the Dnieper River. The strike in question was carried out in the early morning hours of November 21 and was previously thought to have used an intercontinental ballistic missile. But, as it turned out, the strike was carried out by a different weapon, namely the new ballistic missile “Oreshnik.” UNN has gathered information for you about the enemy's new development.
“Our missileers called it 'Oreshnik,'” the Russian dictator said in a televised address released after the strike on the Dnieper River. Putin also said that Ukraine had “no means” to counter the new Oreshnik missiles.
According to the dictator, the use of Oreshnik was in response to Ukraine's use of American and British long-range weapons.
According to two U.S. officials and a Western official, the “experimental” Russian missile carried multiple warheads, and it may be the first time such a weapon has been used in war.
russia warned the United States about its missile launch through the National Nuclear Threat Reduction Center, the Kremlin and Pentagon said. “The warning was sent in a permanent automatic mode 30 minutes before the launch,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
What is a “hazel”.
It is known from open sources that this is a multi-purpose, individually guided warhead (Separating Head Part with Individual Guidance Units - SIG IN). That is, the carrier carries a number of warheads, each of which can be targeted at a specific location, allowing a single ballistic missile to deliver a larger strike. INF boosters were developed during the Cold Warto enable the delivery of multiple nuclear warheads in a single launch. In the United States, the Minuteman III missile, an intercontinental ballistic missile in service with the U.S. Army since the 1970s, has similar characteristics.
Sabrina Singh, deputy Pentagon spokeswoman, described the Oreshnik as a variant of the Russian RS-26 ballistic missile. The RS-26 is a 40-ton solid-fueled missile. Depending on the angle at which it is fired, the RS-26 can travel just over 5,400 kilometers. That puts the missile almost on par with intercontinental missiles. Still, the RS-26 is considered more comfortable and effective to launch, as a medium-range ballistic missile - up to 5,400 kilometers.
According to Forbes, the problem for the designers of the RS-26 (Rubezh ICBM) was that until 2019, the United States and Russia were parties to the 1987 Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missile Elimination Treaty, which prohibited the testing and deployment of missiles at ranges of 310 to 3,400 miles (approximately 500 to 5,400 kilometers).
In 2019, both the u.s. and russia withdrew from the treaty, but even before their withdrawal, russia continued to develop the missile. To avoid openly violating the RSMD Treaty during testing before 2019, the Russians directed the RS-26 to travel just beyond the treaty's 3,400-mile threshold - even though the missile was designed for medium, not intercontinental, range.
According to experts, the RS-26 is not necessarily an intercontinental ballistic missile, and its descendant Oreshnik (code RS-28) almost certainly is not. But the missiles were developed in secret and, in fact, bypassed the agreements in effect until 2019.
CNN has obtained photos of the wreckage of Russian missiles fired at the Dnieper River.
It is reported that the fragments in the photo may not necessarily belong to a single rocket.
Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, the founder of the Charitable Foundation Let's Close the Skies of Ukraine and former deputy chief of the AFU General Staff, told Radio NV in an interview that in all likelihood the Oreshnik missile was delivered to the Russians' missile regiment in October of this year. Not all of the missiles produced were delivered to the military. He also specified that while the Rubezh ICBM (RS-26) carries probably 4 monoblocks (warheads), the Oreshnik has a larger number of warheads - probably 6.
What to shoot down with?
Igor Romanenko admits that theoretically “Oreshnik” can be shot down by such anti-missile systems as Patriot and SAMP/T . But specifies that it will check this war. In Romanenko's opinion, we need complexes similar to the one the U.S. installed at the base in Poland - this is a maritime version of missile defense, but the Americans have modernized it and for location on land.
“In addition, there is an even more powerful American system THAAD (a mobile ground-based anti-missile system for high-altitude interception of medium-range ballistic missiles, developed in the United States - ed.). There are corresponding anti-missile systems from the Israelis. By the way, the Germans are buying exactly from the Israelis this kind of system, which will definitely be able to do this,” Romanenko added.
