US Doesn't Possess, Isn't Even Working on Missile With Oreshnik's Characteristics: Experts

Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces carried out a real-world combat test of the Oreshnik hypersonic missile system on Thursday, targeting a major Ukrainian defense enterprise. Sputnik asked military experts specializing in missile technology how the new ballistic missile compares to US developments, and what explains Russia’s lead in the field.

The development also bears some resemblance to the US’s 2002 move to rip up the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia – which prompted Moscow to work on, and ultimately perfect, an array of new ballistic and glide hypersonic technologies in the late 2010s, among them the Kinzhal, Avangard and Zircon.

Like these earlier systems, the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile revealed to the world on Thursday is a first, and a step above comparable up-and-coming American designs, missile experts say.

“The unique feature of the Oreshnik missile system is that this is a hypersonic medium-range missile flying at a speed of Mach 10,” retired Russian Army colonel and military analyst Viktor Litovkin told Sputnik.

“The West does not have missiles that fly at such speeds, or hypersonic missiles in general,” Litovkin said, emphasizing that the Mach 5-5.5 speeds boasted by US missile systems that are in development including Dark Eagle and OpFires program aren’t truly hypersonic – which “begins at Mach 6 or 7,” in the observer’s estimation.

Training of strategic nuclear deterrent forces under the leadership of the Russian President - Sputnik International, 1920, 22.11.2024

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Russia now has proven hypersonic capability with the Oreshnik, the Mach 10-capable MiG-31-launched Kinzhal missile system, and the Mach 27-ready Avangard hypersonic glider, fitted aboard Russian ICBMs including the UR-100N, Litovkin pointed out.

Mach 10 flight speeds mean “the Oreshnik can cause significant damage not only using nuclear or conventional munitions, but also simply with its kinetic force. That is, the impact of the Oreshnik warhead is powerful enough to penetrate concrete, penetrate earth embankments and explode in a deep underground command post, an underground factory, etc. No Western missile has such properties – neither medium-range nor strategic missiles,” Litovkin emphasized.

For his part, Russian military observer Dmitry Kornev told Sputnik that while the Dark Eagle and OpFires are still “only undergoing trial operation, testing and development, the Oreshnik has been created, and created on the basis of tried and tested technologies and programs,” which greatly simplifies mass production.

Thursday’s real-world combat deployment of the Oreshnik against a military target speaks to the fact that the system is ready for deployment, Kornev said, preempting President Putin’s announcement at a defense briefing late on Friday that Russia has already amassed a stockpile of Oreshnik missiles and will continue to test them, «including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats that are created for Russia.»

Sunset over Saint Basil's Cathedral and Spasskaya Tower in Moscow, Russia. - Sputnik International, 1920, 22.11.2024

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“An element of intrigue here is that we don’t know how many missiles were used – whether it was one missile with these combat capabilities, meaning at least six warheads, or several missiles, which means serial production is probably already underway,” the veteran defense observer explained.

Kornev chalks down Russia’s ability to rapidly develop and ability to deploy new missile systems to the country’s deep-rooted missile design philosophy, which differs greatly from that of the US, in the military expert’s estimation.

Kornev recalled that during the 1980s Euromissile standoff between the USSR and the USA, the Soviets’ RSD-10 Pioneer missile was designed to ensure strategic deterrence on a continental scale, while the US Pershing and cruise deployments’ key goal was to provide Washington with the capability to deliver a strike against enemy targets as quickly as possible from a forward foothold (a strategy which to lives on today with the Pentagon’s highly destabilizing Conventional Prompt Strike program).

“Our system likely has a far greater strike potential in the sense that it was created on the basis of already proven ballistic missile technologies…which means that mass production and rapid deployment of large quantities of the missiles is assured,” Kornev said. «In the case of the West, any similar system will be rather expensive to create.»