What missile defense means can theoretically be used to protect against a Russian medium-range missile
During the direct line, Vladimir Putin proposed a technological duel between the Russian medium-range Oreshnik missile system and Western air defense and missile defense systems, noting that the enemy has no chance of shooting 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 of Izvestia.
The duel of the XXI century
Vladimir Putin challenged the West to a duel if it doubts the capabilities of the "Hazel Tree", and invited foreign experts to choose any target for destruction in Kiev, concentrate air defense forces there and try to intercept the strike.
— Let them (Western experts who doubt the "Hazel Tree" — Ed.) 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 kind of target for destruction, say, in Kiev, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense forces there, and we will strike there with a Hazel Nut, 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 systems can allegedly do this at the launch stage.
— Now let's imagine that our system is two thousand kilometers away. It's just that even the anti—missiles located on the territory of Poland will not reach it," Vladimir Putin said, specifying that the "Hazel" begins breeding combat units in a few seconds.
— And that's it — the train left. So there is no chance to shoot down these missiles," he said.
In addition, the President drew attention to the fact that the range of the Russian complex is up to 5.5 thousand km.
The Supreme Commander—in-Chief also noted that the "Hazel" is a new type of weapon based on modern Russian developments.
— This is a modern, very new weapon. Everything that is done in any field of activity is based on some previous developments, on previous achievements, and then people take a step forward. All the same for the "Hazel Tree". Yes, there were developments, and, by the way, developments already from the Russian period of time," the president said, commenting on allegations in the West that the Hazel is allegedly a modification of Soviet weapons.
Vladimir Putin added that at the stage of developing this system, scientists, engineers and designers thought about its capabilities and coordinated their position with the customer represented by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
The President clarified that in the end this issue reached him, and he took part in the final decision on the production of Oreshnik systems, including on the scale and timing of release.
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, was the first to respond to the proposal to arrange a technological duel, offering his help in choosing an object in Kiev for an experiment with a ballistic complex.
What missile defense and air defense systems can be used against the Hazel
The set of missile defense and air defense systems that, at least theoretically, can counteract the "Hazel" is quite limited, Dmitry Kornev, editor of the Military Russia portal, told Izvestia.
— Firstly, this is the Patriot complex manufactured in the USA, — he noted. — Here it must be understood that Patriot is firing in a certain sector and in order 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, the damage zones of which will overlap each other.
But Patriot is not the best system in the West, the expert noted.
"You can also recall the American THAAD system," he said. — It works on the trans-atmospheric section of the flight of missiles and, in theory, can try to shoot down warheads outside the atmosphere before they disperse each along their own trajectory. But in the case of "Hazel", this most likely may not work out. According to the president, the warheads of the "Hazel" diverge along their individual trajectories long before the final stage of the flight. This is the first moment. Second, THAAD itself is an anti—missile system. However, effective work against target missiles, or old missiles, is one thing. And the work on the hypersonic "Hazel" is a completely different story.
Dmitry Kornev noted that the Israeli Arrow missile defense system is also considered quite effective.
The launch of the Israeli missile defense system Arrow
Image Source: Photo: US Navy
"But the hypersonic units used by Iranian missiles reached targets in Israel," he recalled. — And Arrow could not provide a high percentage of defeat. In the case of the "Hazel", most likely, the probability will be even lower, because it is guaranteed to have more advanced capabilities than Iranian products. Taking into account all of the above, it can be summarized that no matter what missile defense and air defense systems are assembled from all over the world, they are really unlikely to be able to effectively resist the "Hazel".
There is also an Aegis missile defense system — sea and land-based, Ilya Kramnik, a researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia.
— It is impossible to place it in Kiev — the 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 combat units. They are designed to intercept conventional ballistic missiles, mainly without a separable warhead. That is, against North Korean and Iranian products. For them, even the Soviet medium-range Pioneer complex of the 1970s, with the possibility of a missile defense breakthrough, would be a difficult target.
What is known about the "Hazel Tree"
Izvestia wrote that the combat characteristics of the Hazel have not yet been disclosed, but the Russian president has already stated that the combat units attack the target at a speed of 10M, about 3 km/s. The range is up to 5,500 km. This is a mobile system on a multi-axle chassis.
The Hazel is declared as a non-nuclear missile system, the massive use of which can be compared in destructiveness with atomic weapons, which puts it in the category of a non-nuclear deterrent.
Hazel creates damage comparable to that caused by a nuclear warhead due to the use of a multi—element warhead - that is, not one warhead is used for the target, but several at once. The warhead of the missile can penetrate into the thickness of the earth for tens of meters and the concrete floors of the bunkers will not interfere with it.
Vladimir Matveev
Bogdan Stepovoy
Julia Leonova
