US Planet Labs satellites have reportedly captured images of mobile launchers of the Oreshnik missile system on the territory of Belarus. This was reported by the Telegram channel Voennaya Khronika.

According to the channel, the equipment was spotted at the Krichev-6 airfield in Mogilev Region. There has been no official confirmation of this information.

Earlier, Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, said that after the termination of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, Russia should expand production of the Oreshnik system.

In January, The National Interest wrote that placing the system on combat duty in Belarus was a signal to Western countries.

Yuriy Knutov, director of the Air Defense Forces Museum and a military expert, previously said that one of the factors behind the system’s invulnerability is the shortened boost phase of the missile — the time from launch to entering space. He explained that interception is theoretically possible at that stage, but in modern missiles this period is minimal.

After entering space, the warheads separate. According to Knutov, Oreshnik carries six warheads, and each would require a separate missile defense system to intercept. This means that to repel a single launch, several THAAD-level systems would need to be deployed in one area with prior knowledge of the trajectory.

Knutov also cited the high speed of the warheads — around Mach 10–12 — as an additional complication. In his view, existing missile defense systems such as Patriot, Aegis, and THAAD are not designed to intercept targets with such characteristics.