Putin is wrong. Even Ted Postol, who has been (falsely, I think!) accused of all sorts of loyalties in the Syrian missile drama, has said that the Oreshnik is a

Putin is wrong. Even Ted Postol, who has been (falsely, I think!) accused of all sorts of loyalties in the Syrian missile drama, has said that the Oreshnik is a normal intermediate range ballistic missile (variant of the RS-26) and not a low flying hypersonic missile. He also rejected the claim that inert warheads can do the damage that Putin claimed. Which is obvious, since the warheads cannot have more kinetic energy than the total energy of the rocket fuel minus drag. Hypersonic, yes. All IRBMs have hypersonic warheads on reentry.