Russian media has picked up on a report in Germany’s Bild newspaper which highlights a German government assessment saying the country is defenseless against the Russian Oreshnik missile system.
“The Patriot is not right to combat longer-range ballistic missiles, such as the Oreshnik,” Bild quoted a government document as saying, in reference to the US-supplied air defense missile system. “Any interception would be more like sheer luck.”
The report further underscored that currently Germany has no effective method of intercepting an inbound ballistic missile, following decades of a ‘neutral’ and degraded post-WWII military.
“The order came without any specific reason, such as an upcoming trip. It is unclear why the German Foreign Ministry wanted to document this defense gap in Germany. After all, these facts are known to the Ministry of Defense, and appropriate measures have long been taken,” a military expert was cited in Bild as explaining of the context of the document.
Berlin has over the last few years since the start of the Ukraine war been rapidly seeking to build its defenses and expand military spending.
The fact that Russia has already used the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile in Ukraine on more than one occasion has likely put greater fear and urgency in European defense officials. Moscow was sending a big ‘message’.
Russian state media sources have touted that the Oreshnik reaches speeds greater than Mach 10+, and can reach 5,500km in distance, or 3,400+ miles (as a medium-range weapon).
A retired Russian Army colonel and military analyst, identified as Viktor Litovkin, has described, “The West does not have missiles that fly at such a speed or hypersonic missiles at all.”
He said further, “Although the US has repeatedly boasted that it has such missiles, it has never demonstrated a missile flight. They appeared to show missiles that flew at a supersonic speed of 5.5 times the speed of sound or Mach 5.5. However, hypersonic speed begins at Mach 6-7.”
With the prior collapse of the INF treaty, which regulated Russian and US ballistic missile deployments throughout the world, Moscow is very wary of a potential US missile build-up in Europe, which it says it is ready to mirror if threatened.
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