The U.S. can’t defend against Russia’s hypersonic arsenal, and it has not developed its own. So why is the U.S. playing nuclear chicken with Russia? From James Rickards at dailyreckoning.com:
We continue to climb steadily up the World War III escalation ladder.
Last week, Biden foolishly gave Ukraine the green light to strike deep into Russian territory using U.S. missiles.
Now Russia has responded, as Putin promised they would.
On November 21st Russia launched a new hypersonic missile known as the Oreshnik. It is a unique weapon designed to send a clear message.
The Oreshnik utilizes a system similar to MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) technology common on nuclear ICBMs.
This new missile has 6 warheads which each have 6 submunitions. That’s 36 projectiles per missile in total.
Here is a still shot of one of the sets of 6 submunitions just before reaching its target.
It is important to note that the projectiles are not glowing due to rocket engines firing. The warheads separated from the booster engine at a much higher altitude and are now gliding.
The submunitions are glowing due to the plasma bubble created by friction against the dense atmosphere at speeds of around Mach 10 (7,600 mph). That’s 2.1 miles per second.
