Due to the Ukraine war and the transformation of Russia’s economy into a war economy, Russia produces more weapons than all of NATO combined, including high-tech weapons that the collective West can only dream of, such as the hypersonic unstoppable Oreshnik missile, which reaches speeds in excess of Mach 10 (12,250 km/h), survives reentry temperatures of 4,000 degrees Celsius, and unleashes a kinetic energy that is in no way inferior to tactical nuclear weapons.
Since early March 2026, there have been reports from military sources that Russia is developing a more advanced version of the now legendary Oreshnik missile. According to military experts, the advanced Oreshnik has improved warhead performance parameters, new fuels and fundamentally different control mechanisms, to the point that the target deviation will be zero. The Oreshnik cluster cone will carry 8 instead of 6 hypersonic guided warheads, which can be of the MarV (Maneuverable Reentry Vehicle), MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle) or HGV (Hypersonic Glide Vehicle) type. Each warhead will carry 6 kinetic submunitions. That is, the “new” Oreshnik will increase its submunitions from 36 to 48. This is an unprecedented firepower for a single missile.
There is still a lot of secrecy surrounding Oreshnik, fueling speculation and outright disinformation. However, the two strikes that hit Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk on November 21, 2024 and Lvov on January 8, 2026, have given us the opportunity to draw some very important conclusions about its capabilities. For example, its maximum range exceeds 5,000 km, putting almost all of Europe within striking distance, while increasing Russia’s preemptive strike capabilities as it is very difficult to detect and, so far, impossible to intercept.
As for the operation of the missile’s warheads, the available footage from Dnepropetrovsk and Lvov shows at least 36 smaller missiles divided into six groups. The usual lack of visible explosions (although at least one was observed) suggests that these are likely advanced kinetic-piercing munitions (bunker busters) capable of destroying deep underground fortified positions. This means that any NATO command center or base anywhere in Europe (or elsewhere) is within range, without Russia having to rely on its thermonuclear arsenal to deter any aggression. Furthermore, Oreshnik caused explosions lasting up to three hours in the underground facilities in Dnepropetrovsk.
Western military experts admit that the Oreshnik warheads (even inert ones) can cause “great damage” due to the kinetic energy generated by their absolute hypersonic speed. It should also be noted that the commonly cited Mach 10 for the Oreshnik may be misleading, as the missile on which it was based, the RS-26 Rubezh, can actually fly at speeds between Mach 20 and 25 (7-8.5 km/s or 25,000-30,000 km/h). Combined with more advanced warheads (both qualitatively and quantitatively), the Oreshnik “successor” is even more terrifying.
Oreshnik (and its “successor” to be mass-produced from the end of 2026) is not just a missile, it is a prototype of the future logic of warfare: Fast enough to strike before detection, survivable enough to avoid interception, and powerful enough to influence decisions before war even begins. The strategic impact of this missile is obviously enormous. As the conservative television channel and website “Fox News” reports, “the US has spent years racing to develop hypersonic weapons to compete with China and Russia, but delays, shifting schedules and limited testing capacity raise concerns that Washington remains in a phase of catching up on a technology that could reshape modern warfare.”
Moscow currently holds a monopoly on this cutting-edge military technology, having been the first country in the world to produce these missiles and then use them in combat. The US cannot compete with Russia in this regard, and this is not “propaganda” as skeptics might claim, but is confirmed by “The Hill”, one of the most well-known and popular media outlets based in Washington. “The Hill” informed its readers that “the US does not currently have an adequate defense system to shoot down hypersonic missiles. This fact reinforces Russia’s military dominance in the hypersonic domain.”
The current approach of the US Pentagon to develop a hypersonic weapon system, known as the “Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon” (LRHW) codenamed “Dark Eagle”, will be slow to deliver, as it is still going through a rather difficult design and development process due to the technological inferiority of the US in hypersonic propulsion and related sciences. Its technical characteristics so far are speeds exceeding Mach 5 (about 6,000 km/h) and a range of 3,000 km. As the digital magazine “Military Watch Magazine” points out, the anti-missile platform may prove irrelevant and outdated when put into operational use.
Simply put, Moscow has full confidence that the Oreshniks will hit all targets in the worst-case scenario of a conventional NATO-Russia war, meaning that Russia could theoretically destroy the West’s nuclear second-strike capabilities if it launched a first strike to preempt those of its enemies.
