Russia's Oreshnik Missile Strike on Kyiv: A Response to Moscow Drone Attack

The Russians fired the Oreshnik missile at Ukraine's capital Kiev. The missile strike was carried out two days after 18 Russian students were killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on Moscow. The Oreshnik strike is seen as a response to the drone attack on Moscow. The Ukrainians do not possess any weapon to stop the strike of this Russian Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) that flies as fast as Mach 10 or 10 times the speed of sound. This translates to a speed of 12,300 kilometers an hour or 3.4 kilometers per second. That means the 230 km Delhi to Chandigarh in about a minute or the 120 km Mumbai to Pune aerial distance in a little over half a minute and the 270 km aerial distance between Bengaluru and Chennai in 80 seconds.

The dangers of MIRV missile

What makes this missile more dangerous is its ability to carry a Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) warhead. This is a type of ballistic missile payload, that allows a single missile to carry multiple nuclear or conventional warheads, each capable of being aimed at either the same or completely different target, as was seen in this case. The recent Iranian missile onslaught across the West Asian region, over the last few months has demonstrated the difficulty of air and ballistic missile defence systems to tackle this threat. There have been cases in which Iranian ballistic missiles have been intercepted by the American Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system or the Israeli David's Sling and Arrow 2 systems. This already difficult task becomes nearly impossible to achieve when the missile's warhead splits into multiple smaller warheads and overwhelms the defences. Such attacks at these high speeds specially in the terminal phase gives little to no reaction time for an air defence system to comprehend and effectively engage these hypersonic threats. India's more capable equivalent India uses the Agni-V IRBM as its weapon of choice if the need ever arises to display a similar capability. The MIRV capable missile can reach a speed of Mach 24. This means that the missile will fly at a speed just shy of 30,000 km an hour or about 8 km per second. It has a stated range of 5,500 km and can cover China, most of Europe and Africa. Once deployed, the Agni‑V enhances survivability against ballistic missile defence systems through a depressed trajectory launch that reduces the flight time and therefore reduces the enemy's reaction window. The missile’s excess energy can be used for mid‑course manoeuvres, complicating interception attempts. Agni‑V is a three‑stage, solid‑fuelled, road‑mobile ballistic missile housed in sealed canisters that enable long‑term storage, rapid transport, and ready‑to‑fire deployment. This canisterised design offers operational flexibility that is distinct from earlier Agni variants. The Agni-V is guided by the indigenously developed NAVIC system, Inertial Navigation System (INS) as well as by a ring laser gyroscope. The weapon is made using advanced materials which can withstand the 4,000°C. It can carry as many as 10 warheads as per the same report. This is more than the demonstrated capability of the Oreshnik.