Political scientist and former design engineer at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, Oleksandr Kochetkov, commented on rumors that the prototype of the Oreshnik intercontinental ballistic missile was being created in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Points of attention
- The Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipro played a key role in the development of missiles, the designs of which were later taken over by Russia.
- Plans to create a rocket with kinetic weapons at the Institute of Thermal Engineering failed due to lack of funding.
What is currently known about the Russian “Oreshnik”
According to a former design engineer, this rocket was indeed created thanks to the modernization of previous prototypes.
What is important to understand is that the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau was established in Dnipro in the early 1950s, and it was there that the history of Russian weapons creation began.
Alexander Kochetkov draws attention to the fact that the enterprise developed a solid-fuel intercontinental rocket "Universal". However, this project was later taken over by the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering. After that, "Topol-M" was created on the basis of "Universal".
This is an intercontinental solid-fuel three-stage solid-fuel rocket that was on combat duty and is still partially on duty. At the same Institute of Thermal Engineering, they made some modifications. They reduced this rocket, instead of three stages, it had two and it is now called "Yars". It is also on combat duty. But then they decided to modernize it further, — the expert explained.
What happened next?
According to a former design engineer, later the Institute of Thermal Engineering decided to create a new missile with a range of 3-4 thousand kilometers.
What is important to understand is that it was supposed to be smaller in diameter and carry kinetic weapons, and the warheads, which in "Yars" are divided into four parts, were divided into six.
Moreover, it is stated that the rocket was supposed to release rods instead of explosives. Kochetkov emphasized that the rods accelerate at a tremendous speed, hit the ground, then this kinetic energy is released and an explosion occurs — it's like a meteorite falling to Earth.
That was the idea, but the Institute of Thermal Engineering was not given money in 2017. But with the money that the Institute had, they made 3-4 missiles of varying degrees of readiness, the expert explained.
According to him, the development of these missiles was allocated after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
