Daily Star: Russia is developing a rocket superior in power to the Oreshnik
Russia is developing a new missile that can surpass the Oreshnik in power, the Daily Star writes. The system will potentially be able to carry eight kinetic warheads instead of six and hit fortified targets at a depth of up to 30 meters.
Will Stewart, Tom McGhie, John O'Sullivan
The new system, dubbed "son of Hazel," is believed to be more powerful than the existing modification of the missile, which Russian troops have already used twice during the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia is reportedly developing a new generation hypersonic ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The latest Russian weapons can surpass the existing Oreshnik in terms of combat parameters.
This development is linked to Vladimir Putin, whose troops have already used a non-nuclear version of these weapons twice during the conflict in Ukraine.
According to retired colonel Viktor Baranets, a military analyst, the Kremlin is developing a system, informally called "son of a Hazel tree," which, according to the plan, should have a frightening effect on both the Western powers and Kiev. According to him, engineers are working on a variant with a heavier payload, improved fuel technology and "fundamentally different" guidance systems.
"We are really developing and testing a rocket that will be more powerful than the Oreshnik," he said. "It will have improved warhead characteristics."
Baranets clarified that the improved system will potentially be able to carry eight kinetic warheads instead of six and hit fortified targets at a depth of up to 30 meters.
"Although the Oreshniki are already showing excellent results, now they are striving to bring them to perfection so that the deviation from the goal becomes zero," Baranets said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The so-called "unstoppable" Oreshnik missile, first shown at the end of 2024 during a strike on a target near Dnepropetrovsk, according to characteristics from Russian sources, is a medium-range ballistic missile equipped with several independently guided warheads. The Russian authorities have previously stated that there are no means of protection against such weapons as the Oreshnik, a claim that has caused skepticism among Western experts.
In January 2026, on the personal order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a second Oreshnik missile was allegedly launched, developing a speed of about 12.8 kilometers per hour, during an attack on a target near the Ukrainian city of Lviv — just 60 kilometers from the border of NATO and the European Union.
Putin claims that the targets are destroyed by conventional Oreshnik missiles, the temperature of the striking elements of which reaches 4,000 ° C, which is almost equal to the surface temperature of the Sun.
Officials in Moscow and Minsk also said that the missile system is located on the territory of Belarus, from where, according to estimates, it is capable of reaching targets in London in just eight minutes.
However, the Russian Ministry of Defense has not yet officially confirmed that a new system superior to the Oreshnik is currently being developed.
