Well Looky Here, Putin Surprises Again...

All evidence points to Putin having read and understood The Art of War equally or better than Trump, we will never know how well but nonetheless...

via Scott Ritter, X.com

Putin - ICYMI - was one of KGB’s finest. He knows how to play 4-D chess equally or better than Trump - yet never displays everything he knows. Which is why many devious leaders do not trust him - he uses there lack of knowledge against them.

And did just that in the past 48 hours…

Russia has unveiled a new weapon system as a warning to Ukraine and the West.

Russia has apparently launched a single RS-26 Rubezh road-mobile missile against a target in Dnipro, Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk).

According to Ukrainian authorities, the missile struck an unnamed industrial enterprise.

Dnipro is home to the Pivdenmash (former Yuzhmash) missile production facility.

Analysis of imagery of the attack indicates the RS-26 carried six independent warheads, each in turn deploying several submunitions.

This warhead package is exclusively for conventional attacks.

Russia had not been previously assessed to outfit the RS-26 with a warhead of this design.

By unveiling the conventionally armed RS-26, Russia is changing the qualitative nature of the conflict, something promised by President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine and its Western allies must now evaluate the destructive potential of this weapon, and understand that Russia can deliver this warhead to any target in Ukraine or Europe knowing there is no defense against it.

The RS-26 is produced in Votkinsk. It is assessed that the production of the RS-26, which was halted in 2017, was resumed this past summer.

With production rates estimated at 6-8 missiles per month, Russia could have accumulated an arsenal of between 30-40 RS-26 missiles.

Although described as an intercontinental ballistic missile, the RS-26’s range actually depends on the warhead package.

If armed with a single warhead, it can exceed the 5,000-kilometer threshold used to differentiate between intermediate and intercontinental-range missiles.

The RS-26 did not go into serial production because of this ambiguity; at the time, Russia was a signatory to the INF treaty, which prohibited intermediate-range missiles.

It is assessed that the six-warhead conventional warhead package used against Dnipro would have made the RS-26 used to fall into the intermediate range for classification.

Donald Trump withdrew from the INF treaty in 2019.

If the United States had remained in the treaty, this version of the RS-26 would not have been available for use by Russia.

Correction

The missile used by Russia was not the RS-26, but rather a previously unknown medium-range missile known as the Orezhnik (Hazel).

A medium-range missile is generally characterized as having a range of between 1,000 and 3,000 kilometers.

The range from Kapustin Yar to Dnipro is around 800 kilometers.

Vladimir Putin indicated that this missile could be used to strike targets throughout Europe.

Not much is known about the Orezhnik.

However, the Ukrainian government has reported that an RS-26 had been observed at Kapustin Yar prior to the launch, implying that they had access to satellite imagery.

As such, one can speculate that the Orezhnik physically resembles the RS-26, meaning that it uses a six-axle mobile launcher and is fired from a launch canister mounted on the launcher.

If this is the case, the Orezhnik may be a modification of the Rubezh, implying that it is a product of the Nadiradzhe/Votkinsk missile production team.

However, everything is speculation pending more definitive information.

US officials described the Orezhnik as an “experimental” system, implying that they were aware of its existence.