The “experimental” Russian ballistic missile fired at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro carried multiple warheads, according to two US officials and one Western official, in what may be the first time such a weapon has been used in war.
What to know about the weapon: Known as a Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV), it carries a series of warheads that can each target a specific location, allowing one ballistic missile to launch a larger attack. MIRVs were developed during the Cold War to permit the delivery of multiple nuclear warheads with a single launch. The Minuteman III, which is the US intercontinental ballistic missile, is armed with MIRVs. The Russian missile attack on Dnipro was not armed with nuclear warheads, but it used a weapon designed for nuclear delivery to instead launch conventional weapons.
On Thursday, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said this was the first use of the experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile “based on” Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh missile model, though Singh declined to identify the specific type of missile or its capabilities.
Tom Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), says it’s likely the first time a MIRV has been used in combat.
The use of this type of missile armed with conventional warheads is an escalation of Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling, Karako said, which includes the recent update of its nuclear doctrine.
“This is a big rocket with payload capability — presumably MIRVs — and has the baggage associated with it of nuclear delivery vehicles,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his first televised statement about the attack, described it as the “newest Russian medium-range missile system,” which consists of a “ballistic missile in non-nuclear hypersonic equipment.”
He said Russian missilemen call it “Oreshnik.”
