14:02 13-01-2026

Why US missile defense can't stop Russia’s Oreshnik

Analyst Alexander Mikhaylov says only Russia’s S-500 Prometey is designed to counter hypersonic warheads and that US THAAD, SM-3 and Arrow-3 systems cannot intercept Oreshnik.

Alexander Mikhaylov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, believes the United States does not have any system capable of reliably intercepting the strike warheads of the Russian missile complex «Oreshnik».

He pointed out that, in his view, there is currently only one surface-to-air missile system in the world that was originally designed to intercept medium-range ballistic missiles and hypersonic warheads — the S-500 «Prometey», which is in service only with Russia.

Mikhaylov also explained why the US THAAD atmospheric interception system, in his opinion, cannot solve this problem. He noted that Western analysts often claim that under combat conditions THAAD could theoretically shoot down an «Oreshnik» warhead at near-space altitude, since the system is designed to engage targets in the upper layers of the atmosphere. The expert argued that the key issue is that Russian missiles will not deliberately linger in convenient interception zones and «wait» for the American system to engage them.

Mikhaylov stressed that no Western missile defence system is currently capable of effectively countering «Oreshnik». He recalled that Western specialists sometimes mention, in addition to THAAD, the SM-3 interceptor missile and the Arrow-3 system as potential tools for such a task. However, he underlined that in practice none of these systems has ever engaged real hypersonic targets or intercepted Russian hypersonic warheads.

Earlier, media outlets reported that the latest Israeli-American Arrow-3 air and missile defence system, supplied to the German army, had been able to track a recent launch of «Oreshnik». At the same time, it was noted that the system was unable to affect the manoeuvring hypersonic warheads of the complex.