Ukrainian experts say Russian Oreshnik ballistic missile is based on outdated technology – CNN

Ukrainian experts have concluded that Russia's "latest" development is based on outdated technology, based on fragments of the Russian Oreshnik missile that attacked Dnipro in 2024.

Source: CNN; United24 Media, a Ukrainian digital media platform

Details: Andrii Kulchytskyi, an expert at the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, told CNN that an Oreshnik missile wreckage suggests that there was "nothing so terrible about its use".

"Here is a gyroscope from Oreshnik – Yuri Gagarin flew with one of these", he commented.

Another expert said Soviet-era vacuum tubes were found among the fragments.

As United24 Media writes, the missile uses an inertial navigation system controlled by an analogue gyroscope. Control boards recovered from the fragments indicate the presence of glass-enclosed electron tubes – likely krytrons or high-frequency resonators – suggesting the missile's architecture is not fully digital.

Some components bear manufacturing markings from 2018, indicating they were likely intended for earlier projects.

Background:

• Back in November 2024, after the first use of the Oreshnik against the city of Dnipro, Kyrylo Budanov, then head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine said that Oreshnik was "just a cipher" and the system itself is called Kedr.
• Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of DIU, said Russia began new R&D work in 2018-2019 called Kedr RV. This work was aimed at developing a missile complex to replace the RS-24 Yars – a missile that was in service back in the Soviet Union and is now on combat duty in Russia.
• The Kedr missile complex was developed on the basis of the Rubezh missile complex, but, according to Skibitskyi, "something went wrong" for the Russians and from 2017 they stopped this development. Instead, Russia launched a new R&D project which it called Oreshnik.

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