MoA Has A Very Good Article On The New Russian Missile

The entire article at MoA is highly interesting:

Why These New Russian Missiles Are Real Game Changers

The article traces the development of the missile family that has turned into what is now being called Oreshnik. That development is placed within the context of arms control between the US and the USSR/Russia. I’ll excerpt the middle portion, which really gets to the nub of why this is a game changer—but with a bit of background:

In early 2018 the Russian Federation decided to halt all further development of the RS-26 and invested its money into the more promising hypersonic glide vehicle Avanguard.

A few month after Russia had taken the decision to mothball the RS-24 development the U.S. withdrew from the INF-treaty. While the U.S. claimed that certain cruise missile developments in Russia were in breach of the treaty the real reason for the withdrawal was elsewhere:

[T]he US need to counter a Chinese arms buildup in the Pacific, including within South China Sea, was another reason for their move to withdraw, because China was not a signatory to the treaty. US officials extending back to the presidency of Barack Obama have noted this.

That’s an important point. The withdrawal from the INF treaty—by this account—appears to have been part of Trump’s pivot to China, to maintain US hegemony over, well, the entire world. The China Fear had roots well before Trump, of course—as noted. What was lacking in all this, it seems, was any awareness or concern for what effect this decision would have on Russian strategic thinking and security concerns. If that wasn’t bad enough, the US then went ahead to announce highly threatening plans—for Russia—for missile deployment to Europe

However the U.S. withdrawal from the INF aligned with the 2002 withdrawal of the U.S. from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which had limited missile defenses. Shortly thereafter the U.S. announced to build 'anti missile installations' in eastern Europe. These installation can be easily re-purposed to fire offensive cruise missiles towards Russia.

The implied threat of the “anti-missile” deployments was made quite explicit this summer:

In July 2024 NATO announced that the U.S. would, starting in 2026, deploy nuclear capable intermediate range missiles in Germany.

This would recreated the dangerous situation Europe had seen before the INF treaty was put into place. A nuclear war within Europe, without the involvement of the continental U.S., will again become a possibility.

Russia had to finally react to the threat. A few weeks after the NATO announcement Vladimir Putin responded to those plans:

…

Noting that the US was returning to the highly unstable Cold War pre-INF regime, Putin announced Russia’s renewed development of capabilities that were fully displayed just this week.

Yesterday's attack on the Yuzhmash complex in Dnepropetrovsk (video) was the first demonstration of the new Russian capability.

The new missiles, named Oreshnik (hazel), is a RS-26 variant with a shorter range and a payload of six (instead of the previously four) multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV). Each reentry vehicle can carry six sub-munitions. The payload can be inert, destroying the target by the shear power of its kinetic energy, high-explosive or nuclear.

The “test” strike used the inert warhead capability. The mobility of the missile makes it highly survivable.

The missile uses solid fuel and is road mobile. It can be fired on short notice from camouflaged positions.

Launched from Russia the missile can reach any target in Europe in less than 20 minutes. On reentry into the atmosphere the warheads of the missile reach hypersonic speeds of 3-4 kilometer per second. There is no air defense system in the world that could stop them.

The surprising and successful demonstration of such an enormous capability is a wake-up call for European strategists.

And finally we get the geostrategic bottom line.

Lulled in by neoconservative talk of western supremacy and presumed Russian inabilities the Europeans were eager to connect their fate to a proxy war against Russia. Having been defeated in the fight for the commodities of the Donbas region they have pushed for extending the reach of their weapons into Russia.

The results are now in. Europe is defenseless against new Russian weapons which can reach every political and industrial center of Europe with devastating power and with just minutes of notice.

Luckily there is still time to change course.

Yesterday I was at pains to stress the delusional Neocon notions of dealing a strategic defeat to Russia, of “winning” a nuclear war. Putin explicitly addressed this craziness, directing his remarks not only to the Russian nation but also to

those who persist in the illusion that a strategic defeat can be inflicted upon Russia

Time for a serious reset. Trump’s inclusion of old thinkers in his cabinet may ensure confirmation, but it’s not a promising start for a serious reset. But that may change. The Oreshnik is a rude introduction to a brave new world for the Anglo-Zionist Empire—the multi-polar world. This is explained by Helmholtz Smith quite succinctly (but I excerpt):

ADVICE FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP ON UKRAINE (BY HELMHOLTZ SMITH)

He begins by recalling the early years of America, when it was still a republic and long before the Anglo-Zionist Empire. The words are the famous words of John Quincy Adams, long ignored by the Anglo-Zionists in their hubris:

But she [America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign Independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brow would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of Freedom and Independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an Imperial Diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.

If one thing has become clear to all the world during the past sad four years of Anglo-Zionist adventurism and genocide, it is that US hegemony rests on naked violence. To quote the liberal mantra, ignored by its own devotees, that’s not America.

Helmholtz Smith then goes on to sketch out the new world order that, sooner or later but hopefully sooner, America will need to recognize:

I recommend you read the Russia-China declaration of February 2022. Ignored by the “fake media” (of course), here’s the official English translation on the Russian site. The essential points are these.

1. World power is shifting (“redistribution of power in the world”).

2. The USA [Anglo-Zionists] and its [vassal states] think they can do what they want but they don’t have the power to.

3. Multi-polarity is the future. Countries are what they are; deal with it.

All true. In the new world – and it’s coming fast – America will be one player among many. A big player but not the biggest – Russia has the strongest military and China the strongest economy. (And, if your team fails, a ruined America will not be a player at all.)

Now to Ukraine. You have boasted that you could stop the war in 24 hours. Well, you can’t. But you could do quite a lot in 24 days. But only if you understand two realities.

The first is that America is not as powerful as you think it is. It wasn’t as powerful as you thought it was in your first term, but its weakness is much more obvious now. ... The blank check for Israel alienates the world. The dollar is losing ground. Yuge failure.

The second reality has come in the last four years. They’re not afraid of America any more. It’s not as scary, not as powerful and not as competent as they thought it was. ... If American aircraft carriers don’t frighten the Houthis – why would they frighten China?

… your generals aren’t warriors – they’re bureaucrats with MBAs dreaming of becoming sales reps for the MIC. “As long as it takes” isn’t very long. Send more weapons? What’s left to send? The “game changers” are defeated. You don’t have a big stick.

The good news—and it’s really very good—is that there is still time for America to change course. The even better news is that the BRICS nations do not seek to destroy America. A reset for America could be a freebie, if we embrace it. Or it can be painful and difficult if we resist what’s coming.