Retired navy captain and military analyst Vasily Dandykin believes that no technology capable of reliably defending against hypersonic weapons will appear in the foreseeable future. He is convinced that none of the existing air defence systems can intercept Russia’s medium-range Oreshnik missile.

Dandykin notes that, in his view, neither current nor promising American, European or British systems are able to shoot down Oreshnik. He points out that it makes no fundamental difference whether the missile carries a nuclear warhead or a conventional payload: at a speed of around Mach 13, the scale of destruction is comparable to that of a nuclear blast, but without radioactive contamination.

According to him, European specialists are already openly admitting that they are unable to counter Russian hypersonic capabilities. Dandykin believes that creating effective air defence solutions against such weapons will take a very long time, since at these velocities, detecting, tracking and destroying a missile is practically impossible.

Earlier, Western media reported that an Oreshnik missile equipped with six non-nuclear warheads, if launched from the Russian Arctic, would be able to hit the continental United States within minutes. This, the reports noted, indicates that Moscow managed to implement a hypersonic programme before Washington, giving Russia the ability to deliver a non-nuclear strike against a potential adversary within an hour.