Oreshnik vs Western Missile Defenses: Who Would Win?
U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, is seen at a golf course in Seongju, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed holding a technological duel of sorts between the products of Russian and Western military-industrial complexes, respectively.Referring to those Western pundits who cast doubt on the capabilities of Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic intermediate-range missile, Putin, during his annual “Direct Line” Q&A session, offered to assuage their concerns with a simple test.His proposal was simple: let those Western pundits choose a facility somewhere in Kiev, for example, deploy the best air defense and anti-missile defense system the West has to offer to protect this facility, and then see if these defenses can counter an Oreshnik strike.The outcome of such a test, however, already seems decided as none of the currently-available Western missile defenses are capable of intercepting Russia’s Oreshnik, military analyst Alexey Leonkov told Sputnik.The vaunted US THAAD and the Israeli Arrow 3 missile defense system, which probably could take on first-generation Russian hypersonic missile such as Kinzhal and Zircon, have a snowball’s chance in hell to intercept Oreshnik, a second-generation hypersonic weapon, he said.
AnalysisRussia’s Invincible Oreshnik Has Left West in The Dust – Ex-DoD Analyst19 December, 13:21 GMTAir defense systems such as the German IRIS-T, French SAMP-T or the US-Norwegian NASAMS would be powerless against Oreshnik as well, even if they were to fire their entire payload at it, Leonkov added.As for the famous Patriot, Leonkov recalled how one such air defense system in Kiev ended up firing all of its 32 interceptors at an incoming hypersonic Kinzhal missile and failing to hit it before being destroyed by that same Kinzhal.While Western air defenses can guide their interceptors towards targets flying at a speed of about Mach 2.5, Oreshnik dives at its target at Mach 12. These weapons could thus ‘see’ Oreshnik but still be powerless to do anything about it.The fact that Oreshnik constantly maneuvers at hypersonic speed while approaching the target makes predicting its trajectory virtually impossible for enemy air defenses, Leonkov concluded.
