MIT Professor Emeritus Ted Postol told TASS yesterday that no existing defense system can intercept Russia’s new Oreshnik intermediate range missile. He dismissed claims that existing missile defense systems, including Aegis, Aegis Ashore, THAAD, Patriot, and Iron Dome, could counter the Oreshnik. “No, no, absolutely not,” he stressed. “There’s nothing available that can engage that system and offer any meaningful defense against it.”
Postol, who specialized at MIT as Professor of Science, Technology and International Security, also vehemently rejected suggestions that the Oreshnik system represents previously outdated developments of Moscow. “I have to say that my reaction is that anybody who would make that claim either has no idea what they’re talking about, or they’re just lying. ... My guess is these statements are all being made by political people who don’t know one rocket from another,” he said. Postol may have been referring to the claim made by Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh, last week, that the Oreshnik is a derivative of the RS-26 ICBM, the development of which was abandoned by Russia in 2018 in favor of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle.
