Can someone briefly explain to me how a hypersonic balistic missile is different from a ballistic missile? Has it got something to do with hypersonic speeds during boost phase?
Otherwise, all ballistic missiles are hypersonic during re-entry phase. So I was wondering what made Oreshnik so different.
There's nothing different, both are same.
What is different are the warheads it carriers.
The missile is mirv(multiple independent reentry vehicle) capable.
The multiple warheads here are 6, carried by one missile.
The warheads themselves are MARV( manurable reentry vehicle) and each warhead further carries 6 sub warheads that finally explodes.
The ones russia used seems to be deep penetrators but pretty sure they can also be configured as surface or even aerial explosive.
So a single missile with conventional warheads can destroy multiple targets(36) in a half a kilometer area.
Previously you need 10-15 missiles for that, which was quite expensive beacuse those 10-15 missiles have 10-15 engines combined, 10-15 fuselages with fuel, many sensors etc.
So one missile can now destroy a area which needed 10-15 missiles to destroy, now this missile is much bigger than the ones you would use, but still pretty cheap compared to using multiple missiles.
