The Oreshnik, Russia's new intermediate-range ballistic missile, cannot be intercepted by any of the existing missile defense systems in the world, a leading missile technology expert claimed.
Residents of Kazakhstan watch and film the launch of the Oreshnik missile towards Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipro), November 21, 2024.
— nofm_geopolitics (@nofmgeopolitics) November 22, 2024
Russia sent the United States an automatic notification through the Nuclear Risk Reduction Center 30 minutes before the launch of the #Oreshnik missile,… pic.twitter.com/4aoWYTnRNX
According to media reports, Theodore Postol, a US missile technology expert and retired MIT Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy, rubbished the claims that defense systems like Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, Aegis Ashore, THAAD, Patriot, or Iron Dome can counter Oreshnik, which means hazel tree in Russian.
🇪🇺‼️🇷🇺 Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new Missile Complex Oreshnik (IRBM) leaves all of Europe minutes from Armageddon. It can strike any city in the EU in under 20 minutes. The System is also Nuclear Capable Despite being armed with Conventional Warheads for Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/ONiLizqmdw
— SputnikSpreader (@VasBroughtToX) November 23, 2024
He seemed to echo the claims of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in a TV address, had claimed that "there are currently no ways of counteracting this weapon". Putin had made the statement after Russia fired the intermediate-range ballistic missile in response to Kyiv's use of the US and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.
ALSO READ: What’s Oreshnik ballistic missile that Russia fired at Ukraine?
Classified as a hypersonic missile, capable of traveling at speeds exceeding Mach 5 and has the ability to maneuver mid-flight, Oreshnik, which can carry multiple independently guided warheads, has a reported range of 2,500-3,000km.
According to Postol who claims that Oreshnik is a very advanced system that uses very advanced technology, "There is nothing available that can engage that system and offer any meaningful defense against it."
READ MORE: Russia's defence sector boasts 95 per cent advanced missile arsenal readiness
He dismissed claims that Oreshnik system represents previous outdated developments in Russia, and said people who make such claims have no idea what they are talking about. "My guess is these statements are all being made by political people who don't know one rocket from another," news agency TASS quoted him as saying.
According to him, missile defense systems like Aegis, THAAD, Patriot, and Iron Dome are "are fundamentally flawed in their concept" and so they "can’t even defend against a standard ballistic missile, let alone something as sophisticated as this Oreshnik system."
