Moscow’s combat test of an intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile that can reach the entire European continent sends a “very strong message” to the US and the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, believes former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik.
In an interview with RT on Thursday night, Krapivnik discussed what President Putin called a “combat test,” in which Russia’s new hypersonic missile, dubbed ‘Oreshnik’ (‘Hazel’), successfully struck a military industrial facility in Dnipro (formerly Dnepropetrovsk) in Ukraine.
“First of all, it sends a very strong message to the United States, because let's not forget it was Donald Trump who exited the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which forbade a whole category of missiles – the very missiles that could have destroyed Europe. Interestingly enough, the European vassals said nothing against it,” he noted.
According to Krapivnik, the United States had already been developing its own intermediate-range ballistic missiles at the time and decided to withdraw from the treaty under the false pretense that Russia was developing its own.
“Russia turned around and developed a missile relatively quickly, and not just any missile but a hypersonic missile that travels at Mach 10. To understand what Mach 10 means, it’s three kilometers per second; your eye can't catch how fast it goes by,” Krapivnik explained.
The exact technical capabilities of the new nuclear-capable missile are classified, but according to Krapivnik’s estimates, it has a range of at least 3,000 kilometers and can carry about a dozen multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles.
“So the top opens up, and glide vehicles come out traveling at around Mach 10. Not all of them will carry nuclear warheads, as they are often used as decoys. This forces any defensive system to pick and choose its targets,” he said.
A problem here is that it doesn't matter what the system picks and chooses. There are absolutely no anti-missile systems in the world – except perhaps for the Russian S-550 – that can stop a hypersonic missile.
Moscow warned Washington about the impending strike 30 minutes in advance through a contact line designed to reduce the risks of nuclear confrontation, according to the Kremlin. However, Krapivnik stated that although the US obviously passed the notice to the authorities in Kiev, they still had no idea what to expect or what actually hit them.
“This is the first demonstration of the missile's capability,” he said. “You’ve got to remember one thing: two years ago, the US and its Western allies didn’t even believe that Russia had any hypersonic missiles because the prevailing attitude was, ‘We're rich, Russia's poor, and there's no way they can develop anything.’ Which shows absolute ignorance of the Russian economy and military capability.”
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