ALERT: Russian New Oreshnik Hypersonic Missile to Enter Combat Service by End of 2025.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia’s new medium-range missile system, armed with the Oreshnik hypersonic missile, will enter combat service before the end of 2025. The confirmation signals a concrete expansion of Russia’s strike capabilities and heightens strategic pressure on NATO’s eastern flank.

Russia will place its new medium-range missile system, equipped with the Oreshnik hypersonic missile, on official combat duty before the end of the year, President Vladimir Putin confirms during a high-level Ministry of Defense meeting. The statement, reported by the Russian state news agency TASS on December 17, 2025, clarifies the system’s operational status and marks a significant milestone in the modernization of Russia’s missile forces.
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The Oreshnik is Russia’s newest road-mobile, medium-range hypersonic missile system, capable of striking targets at speeds up to Mach 10 with precision-guided warheads designed to penetrate advanced missile defenses across Europe. (Picture source: Sputnik)

The Oreshnik missile system is Russia’s most advanced mobile ground-launched hypersonic ballistic missile platform to date. Developed under intense secrecy and fast-tracked into service after combat testing in Ukraine in late 2024, the system is designed to deliver precise and devastating strikes deep into NATO territory in under 20 minutes. President Putin has described Oreshnik as a “precision-guided meteorite,” emphasizing its capacity to obliterate even deep-buried targets with Mach 10 speed and impact temperatures nearing 4,000 degrees Celsius.

What sets the Oreshnik apart from earlier Russian missile systems is its declared independence from Soviet legacy technology. According to Colonel General Sergey Karakayev, Commander of the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF), development of the Oreshnik began only in mid-2023 as part of an ambitious design effort to outpace Western missile defense systems. Unlike the older Iskander or Tochka platforms, the Oreshnik is not a modernization but a brand-new weapons architecture, likely built with advanced guidance, high-thrust propulsion, and sophisticated countermeasure-resistant warhead technology.

While exact specifications remain classified, Russian officials have released enough curated information to project a system of strategic consequence. The missile is road-mobile, making it difficult to detect and destroy preemptively. With a range of up to 5,500 kilometers and a payload capacity of 1.5 metric tons, the Oreshnik can strike from deep inside Russian territory to nearly any strategic node in Europe. A government information campaign last year claimed that it could reach NATO's military headquarters in Brussels from the Kapustin Yar test site in just 17 minutes, Ramstein Air Base in Germany in 15, and the Redzikowo missile defense base in Poland in 11.

Its ability to carry nuclear warheads with yields up to 900 kilotons, the equivalent of 45 Hiroshima bombs, has not gone unnoticed by Western defense analysts. Although the Kremlin insists the system is non-strategic, the destructive potential of a coordinated multi-missile barrage puts it in a grey zone between conventional and nuclear deterrence. The psychological and military impact of such a weapon may be more destabilizing than any Russian deployment since the introduction of the SS-20 in the late Cold War era.

According to military sources, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces have already begun preparing new deployment sites in Russia’s Western Military District, with integration teams coordinating mobility training and C2 (command and control) protocols for the new system. A similar process is reportedly underway in Belarus, where President Alexander Lukashenko requested a forward deployment of Oreshnik units earlier this year. By November 2025, Lukashenko confirmed that Belarus would host the system, under Russian SMF command but with targeting decisions jointly discussed with Minsk. This move could drastically shorten missile flight times to Central European capitals, intensifying strategic tensions.

The Oreshnik’s combat debut came on November 21, 2024, when it struck the Yuzhmash defense plant in Dnipro, Ukraine, a symbolic and strategic target in Kyiv’s missile production infrastructure. The strike was billed by the Kremlin as retaliation for Ukrainian long-range attacks using U.S.- and U.K.-supplied missiles inside Russian territory. Analysts noted that the precision and timing of the attack demonstrated the system’s readiness, with high-altitude satellite tracking and infrared signatures confirming a successful hypersonic terminal phase.

President Putin has repeatedly argued that weapons like the Oreshnik reduce the necessity for nuclear escalation by offering a non-nuclear option with strategic impact. But that logic itself suggests a doctrinal shift toward preemptive or early-strike capabilities with high-precision, high-yield conventional arms, a trend already visible in Russia’s evolving military posture from Kaliningrad to Crimea.

Western responses remain measured but wary. NATO command has not issued a formal statement on the December 17 deployment confirmation, but sources inside the alliance’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence Policy Directorate told Army Recognition that the alliance is closely monitoring Oreshnik’s integration timeline and may adjust regional missile defense protocols accordingly.

Though shrouded in a state-controlled narrative, the Oreshnik's development timeline and rapid deployment suggest a focused Kremlin effort to reshape deterrence calculus in Europe. Unlike the Avangard hypersonic boost-glide system, which is strategic and largely nuclear-oriented, Oreshnik blends medium-range reach with the speed and lethality typically reserved for strategic assets. Its dual-capable nature raises the threshold for Western early warning systems and complicates rules of engagement in any future crisis.

The entry of the Oreshnik into active duty also raises compliance questions regarding the now-defunct INF Treaty, which previously prohibited the deployment of ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Although both the U.S. and Russia withdrew from the treaty in 2019, Oreshnik’s declared capabilities fit precisely within the previously banned envelope, reinforcing the argument that the arms control framework governing such weapons is now obsolete.

For Russia's defense industry, the Oreshnik is a marquee project, symbolizing Moscow’s commitment to domestic military innovation amid sanctions and international isolation. Serial production was confirmed by Putin on November 4, 2025, and the first operational units were delivered to SMF troops earlier in August. The pace of development, just over two years from concept to deployment, is unusually rapid even by Russian standards, underscoring the program’s political and strategic priority.

As 2025 draws to a close, the Russian Armed Forces are entering a new era in missile warfare. With the Oreshnik ballistic missile now poised for full operational status and forward deployments likely in Belarus and potentially other CSTO partners, Moscow has unveiled a new tool of deterrence, coercion, and warfighting. How NATO and the United States respond to this new reality may shape the next phase of Europe’s strategic balance.

Written by Alain Servaes – Chief Editor, Army Recognition Group
Alain Servaes is a former infantry non-commissioned officer and the founder of Army Recognition. With over 20 years in defense journalism, he provides expert analysis on military equipment, NATO operations, and the global defense industry.