Vladimir Putin has bragged that Russia has a monopoly on hypersonic weapons (Image: GETTY)
VLADIMIR Putin has goaded NATO by bragging that Russia is the only country in the world with deadly hypersonic weapons, which he said could be equipped with nuclear payloads.
By CIARAN MCGRATH
PUBLISHED: 14:31, Tue, Dec 24, 2019
UPDATED: 21:43, Tue, Dec 24, 2019
Speaking at a meeting with top military officials, Mr Putin said that for the first time in history, Russia has an edge in designing a new class of weapons, unlike in the past when it was catching up with the US. He said the first unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle was set to go on duty this month.
Meanwhile the air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missiles have already entered service.
Mr Putin first mentioned the Avangard and the Kinzhal among other prospective weapons systems in his state-of-the-nation address in March 2018.
At the time, Mr Putin said the Avangard has an intercontinental range and could fly in the atmosphere at a speed 20 times the speed of sound.
The warhead of the Avangard hypersonic boost-glide weapon being tested (Image: GETTY)
He noted that the weapon’s ability to change both its course and its altitude en route to a target makes it immune to interception by the enemy.
Speaking on Tuesday, he described the Avangard as a “weapon of the future, capable of penetrating both existing and prospective missile defence systems”.
The Kinzhal, which is carried by MiG-31 fighter jets, entered service with the Russian air force last year.
President Vladimir Putin watches the launch of the Avangard last year (Image: GETTY)
Mr Putin said that the missile flies 10 times faster than the speed of sound, has a range of more than 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) and can carry a nuclear or a conventional warhead.
The US and other countries have also worked on designing hypersonic weapons, but they have not yet entered service.
Mr Putin returned to the subject in December 2018, claiming hypersonic weapon test had been a “complete success”, describing it as “big moment in the life of the armed forces and in the life of the country”.
A display of a flight of the warhead of the Avangard hypersonic boost-glide weapon (Image: GETTY)
Hypersonic weapons travel several times the speed of sound (Image: GETTY)
Rafaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute, commented: “The test of a new hypersonic missile, which Mr Putin boasts in “invulnerable” to western defences, heralds a world that we thought we had consigned to history.”
Writing in the Sunday Times, he added: “Moscow feels compelled to demonstrate a sense of global confrontation to enhance national power and to explain at home the imposition of economic sanctions and the vilification of Russia in the international media.
He added: “Moscow sees the current confused order as a prime environment in which to asset its meddlesome influence abroad and build a narrative at home of international power and importance.
“We are able to respond in only a piecemeal fashion and struggle to maintain a unified line for long.
“Previously the clarity of a structured order between the Soviet and western blocs defined who the enemy was and what we would need to do in response to the weapons they were developing.”
He concluded: “Travel to Beijing, Moscow or Tehran and you hear views we would dismiss as conspiracy theories being shared among some of the most sophisticated thinkers as mainstream perspectives.
A CGI image showing the Avangard in space (Image: GETTY)
“Doubtless they observe the same phenomenon when they visit us.
“The biggest danger we face is not large-scale military conflict fuelled by hypersonic weapons.
“It is a miscalculation of one another’s aims and intentions that precipitates confrontations and spirals out of control into conflict.”
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