Russia has successfully test-fired its locally designed hypersonic missile system, called Avangard.
The Russian Defense Ministry has carried out tests of the hypersonic system Avangard to successfully verify all of its technical parameters, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with government members on Wednesday.
“On my instructions the industrial enterprises and the Defense Ministry have prepared for and carried out the final test of this system,” Putin said. “The test was completely successful: all technical parameters were verified.”
Russia’s hypersonic missile system will enter service in the Armed Forces next year, Vladimir Putin told the government on Wednesday, stressing that this is a new type of strategic weapons.
“Starting from next year, in 2019, a new intercontinental strategic system Avangard will enter service in the Russian army and the first regiment in the Strategic Missile Troops will be deployed,” Putin said.
The Avangard is a strategic intercontinental ballistic missile system equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle. According to open sources, the ‘breakthrough’ weapon was developed by the Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (the town of Reutov, the Moscow Region) and was tested from 2004.
The glide vehicle is capable of flying at hypersonic speed in the dense layers of the atmosphere, maneuvering by its flight path and its altitude and breaching any anti-missile defense.
Putin announced an array of new weapons in March, including the Avangard, in one of his most bellicose speeches in years, saying they could hit almost any point in the world and evade a U.S.-built missile shield.