By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
Russia has confirmed it – the Kremlin will deploy the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in Belarus by the end of the year, putting all of Europe within range of the weapon.
The Oreshnik can carry multiple independently retargetable warheads wit hypersonic reentry vehicles, and has an estimated range of 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles). It can be armed with either nuclear or conventional warheads. According to Military Watch Magazine, most of the Oreshniks sent to Belarus will carry nuclear weapons.
“By year’s end, I believe the decision regarding the placement of Oreshnik, which was agreed upon by our heads of state, will become a reality,” said Alexander Volfovich, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, speaking at an international security summit. “These issues have been resolved, and the locations within Belarus have been finalized.”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that his country was building several launchers for the Oreshnik as part of an agreement with Russia. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has relied on importing launchers from Belarus and other countries.
Last November, Russia fired the Oreshnik for the first time in combat, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces Strategic Command. Six independently retargetable warheads from a single missile were used against industrial targets in Dnipro, Ukraine.
The development of the Oreshnik has many in western Europe whether their defenses are adequate.
According to The Times of London, an independent panel that’s part of the British government’s strategic review is said to be “deeply concerned” by the UK’s vulnerability to missiles attacks. The report said the country’s missile defenses were “sorely lacking” and noted “the growing risk to Britain and its military assets overseas, as China, Russia and Iran rapidly develop ballistic missiles that can cross continents at many times the speed of sound.”
Senior military officials also told the Times that Royal Navy warships are vulnerable to ballistic missile strikes.
After the Oreshnik launch in November, Russia’s ambassador to the UK said the British government would now take a more cautious approach when it came to attacking Russian targets.
“Not that they (British officials) were scared, but overall they realized that a completely new factor had appeared on the scene – that’s the first thing,” said Andrey Kelin. “In the expert community there was undoubtedly a serious study of the abilities, capabilities of the Oreshnik missile, its deployment on the territory of Belarus, from which, let’s say, any point in Europe is reachable.”
Morris is Warrior’s Vice President for News. Morris previously worked as an executive, editor and producer at Bloomberg TV and ABC News