Focus on the Russian missile’s warhead, not its range, says analyst
From CNN's Christian Edwards
Kyiv has accused Moscow of firing an ICBM at Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region early Thursday. However, a Western official later told CNN the weapon appears to have been a shorter-range ballistic missile – not an ICBM.
The main difference between an ICBM and other types of ballistic missile is only in their respective ranges. As the name suggests, ICBMs can travel thousands of miles – crossing continents – whereas ballistic missiles have shorter and intermediate ranges.
But rather than focusing on the range of the missile, what matters instead is the explosive power packed by the missile – known as its “payload” – Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at the Oslo Nuclear Project, told CNN.
Although Russia’s strike was non-nuclear, the missile appeared to carry a “MIRV” payload, meaning it used multiple warheads to strike separate targets.
MIRVS, or Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicles, were developed during the Cold War to permit a missile to deliver multiple nuclear warheads to different targets.
Although the nuclear payload appeared to have been replaced with a non-nuclear one in this case, the use of the MIRV technology was intended to send a message, Hoffmann said.
“MIRV capability has been exclusively linked to nuclear-capable missiles, with no conventional missile systems in Russia’s arsenal possessing this technology. Regardless of the missile’s exact range, the message therefore remains centered around a nuclear threat,” Hoffmann told CNN.
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/ukraine-russia-war-11-21-24/index.html
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