TASS-FACTBOX. On December 17, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at a meeting of the Defense Ministry that the medium-range missile system armed with the Oreshnik hypersonic missile will be placed on combat duty by the end of 2025. TASS-FACTBOX editors have prepared a report on this type of weapon.

Basic Information

Oreshnik is a Russian road-mobile missile system with a medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile.

Project History

On November 21, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had used the latest Russian medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile, the Oreshnik, for the first time, striking a Ukrainian defense industry facility - the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepropetrovsk. According to the head of state, the combat testing of the Oreshnik missile system was conducted in response to an attack by US-made and British-made long-range missiles on Russian territory.

The following day, at a meeting with the Defense Ministry leadership, defense industry representatives, and missile system developers, Putin announced that, according to live monitoring data analysis, the combat testing of the latest missile system was successful, the decision to mass-produce it had been made and "practically organized" - it will be deployed to the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF). However, according to the president, Oreshnik is not a strategic weapon, but rather a precision-guided munition. However, due to its striking power when used in large numbers or in groups, as well as in combination with other Russian high-precision long-range systems, the effect of its strikes will be comparable to that of strategic weapons. The president also said that the Oreshnik is not a modernization of older Soviet systems, but a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art system. According to SMF Commander Colonel General Sergey Karakayev, the development of the medium-range mobile ground-launched missile system as part of the Oreshnik experimental design project began in July 2023.

On November 28, 2024, at a restricted attendance meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Putin announced the start of serial production of the Oreshnik system, noting that Russia already had several ready-to-use products of this type. "The serial production of the Oreshnik system has commenced. However, the choice of weaponry will ultimately depend on the nature of the designated targets and the level of threats posed to the Russian Federation," the president said.

Technical Features

The exact performance characteristics of the Russian Oreshnik missile system are classified; no information about it had been published in open sources until November 21, 2024. According to Sergey Karakayev, Commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, the missile's warhead enables it to reliably penetrate any existing or future anti-ballistic missile defense (ABM) systems and strike targets throughout Europe.

The Oreshnik’s operating principle was described by Putin at a CSTO meeting on November 28, 2024: "The system deploys dozens of homing warheads that strike the target at a velocity of Mach 10, equivalent to approximately three kilometers per second. The temperature of the impact elements reaches 4,000 degrees Celsius - nearing the surface temperature of the sun, which is around 5,500-6,000 degrees. Consequently, everything within the explosion’s epicenter is reduced to fractions, elementary particles, essentially turning to dust. The missile is capable of destroying even heavily fortified structures and those located at significant depths." According to the Russian president, "The Oreshnik system, of course, has no equivalents in the world, and I doubt we will see anything comparable in the foreseeable future."

Later, answering reporters’ questions, Putin said an Oreshnik strike could be compared to the impact from a collision with a meteorite, which creates a crater fit for an entire lake. "We know from history what meteorites fell where, and what the consequences were. Sometimes it was enough to form entire lakes." The president said that the latest Russian missile system is a high-power, precision weapon capable of striking a target more than four stories deep in a fortified structure. Furthermore, it can be made even more powerful—the tests were primarily aimed at verifying such interrelated characteristics as range and warhead power. A sufficient number of these modern weapons systems practically eliminates the need to use nuclear weapons, the Russian president stated.

According to information published on November 28, 2024, on the government portal Obyasnyaem.rf, the Oreshnik missile is capable of carrying a warhead weighing up to 1.5 metric tons, with a maximum range of 5,500 kilometers. According to data published on the portal, the Oreshnik missile system's flight time from the Kapustin Yar test site (Astrakhan Region, Russia) to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels will be 17 minutes, 15 minutes to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and 11 minutes to the US missile defense base in Redzikowo, Poland. According to Obyasnyaem.rf, the Oreshnik missile system can deliver nuclear warheads with a total yield of up to 900 kilotons (45 Hiroshimas).

On August 1, 2025, Putin, answering reporters’ questions, announced that the first serial Oreshnik missile system had been produced and had been delivered to the troops. Later, on November 4, 2025, the head of state announced the start of serial production of the missile system.

Deployment

On December 6, 2024, after a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State in Minsk, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to deploy Russian medium-range ballistic missiles, the Oreshnik, in Belarus. In response, the Russian president indicated that the Oreshnik system could be deployed in Belarus in the second half of 2025. In Belarus, the Oreshnik system will be part of the Russian Army’s Strategic Missile Forces, but Minsk will determine its targets. On November 10, 2025, the Belarusian president told reporters that the Oreshnik system would enter combat duty in December.