But the Oreshnik is better understood as a ballistic missile with hypersonic re-entry characteristics, rather than as a manoeuvring hypersonic glide vehicle or hypersonic cruise missile.

Like other ballistic missiles, its re-entry vehicles can travel at hypersonic speeds during parts of their flight. That does not automatically place it in the same category as more advanced hypersonic weapons designed to manoeuvre unpredictably through the atmosphere at sustained high speed.

The same distinction has often been made with Russia’s Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, which Moscow has also promoted as a hypersonic game-changer.

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[The] Oreshnik also exposes a familiar problem with prestige weapons. They may be advanced, dramatic and useful for propaganda, but that does not mean they are efficient instruments of war.