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- The Dueling Complex: Will Western air defense systems be able to stand up to the "Nutshell"
The Dueling Complex: Will Western air defense systems be able to stand up to the "Nutshell"
During the direct line, Vladimir Putin proposed a technological duel between the Russian medium-range missile system "Oreshnik" and Western air defense and missile defense systems, noting that the enemy has no chance to shoot down a hypersonic missile. What anti-missile systems Western countries could hypothetically put up against the new Russian development and how this duel would end - in the material "Izvestia".
Duel of theXXI century
Vladimir Putin challenged the West to a duel if it doubts the capabilities of "Oreshnik", and suggested that foreign experts choose any object to hit in Kiev, concentrate air defense forces there and try to intercept the strike.
"Let them (Western experts who doubt the "Oreshnik". - "Izvestia") offer us and let them offer those in the West and the United States, who pay them for their analysis, to make some kind of technological experiment, say, a high-tech duel of the XXI century. Let them identify some object to be hit, say, in Kiev, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense forces there, and we will strike there with Oreshnik and see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment," the head of state said.
The enemy has no chance to shoot down the Oreshnik missiles, the president said, commenting on the opinion of some foreign experts that Western missile defense and air defense facilities allegedly can do it at the launch stage.
"Now let's imagine that our system stands at a distance of 2,000 kilometers. Simply even anti-missiles located on the territory of Poland will not reach it," Vladimir Putin said, specifying that the "Oreshnik" has a few seconds to start the separation of combat units.
The American THAAD missile defense system
"And that's it, the train has left. So there is no chance to shoot down these missiles," he said.
In addition, the president pointed out that the range of the Russian complex is up to 5,500 kilometers.
The Supreme Commander-in-Chief also noted that the Oreshnik is a new type of weapon based on modern Russian developments.
"This is a modern, very new weapon. Everything that is done in any sphere of activity is based on some previous developments, on previous achievements, and then people make a step forward. It's all the same with the 'Nuttall.' Yes, there were developments, and, incidentally, developments of the Russian period of time," the President said, commenting on the Western claims that the "Oreshnik" is allegedly a modification of Soviet weapons.
Vladimir Putin added that at the stage of development of this system scientists, engineers and designers thought about its capabilities and coordinated their position with the customer represented by the Russian Defense Ministry.
The American THAAD missile defense system
The President specified that in the end this issue reached him and he took part in the final decision on the production of Oreshnik systems, including the scale and timing of production.
The first to respond to the proposal to stage a technological duel was the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who offered his help in selecting a facility in Kiev for the ballistic system experiment.
What missile defense and air defense complexes can be put up against the "Oreshnik"
The set of missile defense and air defense systems that can at least theoretically counter the "Oreshnik" is quite limited, Dmitry Kornev, editor of the Military Russia portal, told Izvestia.
- First of all, it is the US-made Patriot system," he said. - Here it should be understood that Patriot performs shelling in a certain sector and to ensure the increased capabilities of this system it will have to be massaged. That is to put a large number of launchers in several echelons, whose kill zones will overlap each other.
But Patriot is not the best system in the West, the expert noted.
American Patriot surface-to-air missile system
- One can also recall the American THAAD system," he said. - It works in the non-atmospheric section of missile flight and, in theory, can try to shoot down warheads outside the atmosphere before they disperse on their own trajectory. But in the case of the Peanutnik, it probably may not succeed. According to the president, the warheads of the Peanut diverge on their individual trajectories long before the final stage of flight. That's the first point. Second: THAAD itself is an anti-missile system. However, effective work against target missiles or old missiles is one thing. And working against hypersonic "Peanut" is a different story.
Dmitry Kornev noted that the Israeli Arrow missile defense system is also considered quite effective.
- But hypersonic blocks used by Iranian missiles reached targets on the territory of Israel," he recalled. - And Arrow was not able to provide a high percentage of defeat. In the case of the Arrow, the probability is likely to be even lower, because it is guaranteed to have more advanced capabilities than the Iranian products. With all of the above in mind, we can summarize that whatever missile defense and air defense systems are assembled from around the world, they are really unlikely to be able to effectively counter the Peanut.
Ilya Kramnik, a researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestiya.
American Aegis missile defense system
- It is impossible to place it in Kiev - a ship cannot be brought there, and it takes several years to build a stationary system," he said. - In theory, it should show maximum results. But neither the American Aegis nor the Israeli Arrow were created for use against maneuvering warheads. They are designed to intercept conventional ballistic missiles, mostly without fissionable warheads. That is, against North Korean and Iranian products. For them, a difficult target would be even the Soviet medium-range complex "Pioneer" of the 1970s with the ability to break through missile defense.
What is known about the "Oreshnik"
"Izvestia" wrote that the combat characteristics of "Oreshnik" are not yet disclosed, but the Russian President has already said that the combat units attack the target at a speed of 10 M, about 3 km / s. The range is up to 5,500 kilometers. It is a mobile system on a multi-axle chassis.
"Oreshnik" is claimed to be a non-nuclear missile system, the massive use of which can compare in destructiveness with atomic weapons, which puts it in the category of non-nuclear deterrent.
The damage comparable to that caused by a nuclear warhead, "Oreshnik" creates due to the use of a multi-element warhead, that is, not one warhead is used on the target, but several at once. The missile warhead can penetrate tens of meters into the ground, and concrete bunker ceilings will not interfere with it.
