What we know about Russia's Oreshnik missile fired on Ukraine
by AFP Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) Nov 28, 2024

A new intermediate-range ballistic missile called Oreshnik used by Russia in a strike on Ukraine this month is a state-of-the art weapon that the West cannot intercept, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Putin gave details about the missile last week, saying that a strike on the city of Dnipro had tested in combat conditions "one of the newest Russian mid-range missile systems".

He said missile engineers had christened the missile Oreshnik, the Russian word for hazel tree.

Putin said the "test" of the missile "in a non-nuclear hypersonic configuration", had been successful and hit its target.

- Warheads -

On Thursday, Putin gave more details of its characteristics.

The missile has "dozens of warheads, homing warheads", he said at a summit in Kazakhstan.

Putin added that the missile does not cause mass destruction because "there is no nuclear warhead, and that means there is no nuclear contamination after its use".

Military experts have said that, while the Dnipro strike used a conventional warhead, Oreshnik could also carry nuclear warheads.

- Power -

Putin said on Thursday that Oreshnik is a "precision weapon", not a weapon of mass destruction.

The temperature of the destructive elements inside the warheads "reaches 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,232 Fahrenheit)", close to the temperature on the surface of the Sun, he said.

"Therefore everything in the epicentre of the explosion breaks up into fractions, into elementary particles, essentially into dust."

He added that the missile can strike "even targets that are highly protected and located at a great depth".

Both Putin and Russia's missile forces commander, Sergei Karakayev, have said Oreshnik could be as powerful as a nuclear strike if used en masse.

"In the case of mass, group use of these missiles -- or several 'nuts' in a bunch in one strike -- its power, the power of this strike, will be comparable to the use of a nuclear weapon," Putin said.

- Speed -

Air defences cannot intercept the Oreshnik, which attacks at a speed of Mach 10, or 2.5-3 kilometres (1.6-1.9 miles) per second, Putin has said.

Hypersonic missiles travel at speeds of at least Mach 5 -- five times the speed of sound -- and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them harder to track and intercept.

"Modern air defence systems... cannot intercept such missiles. That's impossible," Putin said.

"As of today, there are no means of counteracting such a weapon," he boasted.

Ukraine's GUR military intelligence wrote on Telegram that the missile took 15 minutes to fly from the Kapustin Yar range in the Astrakhan region to the city of Dnipro, a distance of around 800 kilometres (490 miles), reaching a final speed of over Mach 11.

- Range -

An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) has a range of 1,000-5,500 kilometres, a level below that of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Karakayev, the commander of Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces -- which controls its nuclear arsenal and intercontinental ballistic missile programme -- has said that Oreshnik can hit targets "throughout Europe".

- Origins -

Putin said last week that Oreshnik was "not a modernisation of an old, Soviet system"" but a "modern, state-of-the-art" device.

The US Department of Defence described Oreshnik as an "experimental" missile based on Russia's RS-26 Rubezh ICBM.

Little is known about Rubezh, a modification of the Topol ICBM.

Karakayev said the missile, a "ground-based medium-range system", had been constructed based on an order from Putin issued in July 2023.

Putin said on Thursday that "we already have a few such items ready to use" and Russia could carry out further tests in combat.

"Serial production of Oreshnik has begun," he said.

The head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said last week his agency knew of just two prototypes of the missile, although there could be slightly more, and that the weapon was "not yet in serial production".

Putin said that no other countries possess a missile like Oreshnik and that it was impervious both to current and future air defence systems.

The United States and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1987 agreeing to give up all use of missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometres.

Both Washington and Moscow withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, each accusing the other of violations.

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