The newest Russian ballistic hypersonic medium-range missile (MRBM) "Oreshnik" poses a much greater danger to NATO than nuclear weapons. This conclusion was reached by the American publication Foreign Policy.
The authors of the material noted that just one "Oreshnik" missile carries six warheads, each containing six submunitions. In total, this is 36 warheads that can cover a very large area.
When the missile descends to Earth, it can scatter these submunitions to cover a large area with explosives, much like a shotgun fires a load of shot.
The bad news is that the non-nuclear capabilities of "Oreshnik" mean that Russia will have more options for significantly disrupting NATO operations at the conventional level. This could undermine the alliance's defense, allowing Russia to do without nuclear weapons.
The publication recalled that Western countries have no defense against "Oreshnik", so the only option for defense is to disperse their forces so that each strike results in as few losses as possible.
Military expert Vladimir Gundarov noted that by the time it reaches its orbital altitude, the "Oreshnik" missile accelerates to Mach 11 and from there heads towards its target in a cocoon of hot plasma — this is additional natural protection for such warheads.
Earlier www1.ru reported that the Russian SSJ-100 New airliner has started the flight part of certification tests.
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