Here’s why Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic missile is ready for mass production

Thursday’s combat deployment testing of the Oreshnik missile system against a Ukrainian military-industrial target in Dnepropetrovsk speaks to the fact that the new Russian missile system is ready for deployment and mass production, and the reason comes down to the way Russia’s missile weaponry has been designed for many decades, says veteran Russian military observer Dmitry Kornev.

The capabilities of Russia’s military-industrial complex when it comes to producing Oreshnik-style weaponry is “significantly higher than those of the West,” Kornev told Sputnik, pointing to the Russian (and before that Soviet) missile design philosophy going back to the Cold War-era standoff involving the RSD-10 Pioneer and the Pershing 2 – with the Soviet system designed to ensure strategic deterrence on the continental scale, vs. the US goal of delivering a strike against enemy targets as quickly as possible from a forward foothold.

“Our system likely has a far greater strike potential in the sense that it was created on the basis of already proven ballistic missile technologies - most likely, at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering, which means that mass production and rapid deployment of large quantities of the missiles is assured,” Kornev said.

“In the case of the West, any similar system will be rather expensive to create,” Kornev emphasized.

President Putin confirmed in a briefing with defense officials Friday that a decision on the Oreshnik’s mass production has been taken, and that the military has amassed a stockpile of the new ballistic hypersonic missiles, and “will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats that are created for Russia.”

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🇷🇺🇸🇦 Relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia are excellent – Medvedev

Relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia are excellent and friendly, and the countries are working together to stabilize energy markets, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev highlighted.

"As for relations between Moscow and Riyadh, they are very good and friendly. Russia cooperates with Saudi Arabia in the energy sphere to maintain market stability," Medvedev told the Al Arabiya broadcaster.

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From the rubble to despair: Gaza boy's unfinished battle for recovery

Farid, the sole survivor of an Israeli strike on a five-story building in the heart of Khan Yunis, now lives paralyzed, trapped in a body that requires constant care and rehabilitation. In Gaza, under the suffocating Israeli siege, doctors are powerless to provide him with the treatment he so desperately needs.

"He needs treatment abroad. Before the war, we were involved in rehabilitation, but the occupation destroyed hospitals and the necessary equipment. Now we can only perform 10 to 15 percent of the necessary rehabilitation treatment," said Tariq al Hafni, a doctor at Khan Younis Hospital.

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Message to NATO: Don’t Poke the Russian Bear — @AussieCossack.

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