Russia’s first hypersonic missiles enter service

Russia’s defence minister yesterday told President Vladimir Putin the first Avangard hypersonic missiles had been put into service, in a move hailed as a major coup for Moscow.

Analysts say Russia is the first country to put into combat service intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with hypersonic weapons that Putin said can travel 20 times faster than the speed of sound.

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“The first missile regiment equipped with latest strategic missiles with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered service at 10 am Moscow time on December 27”, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a meeting in televised remarks.

He congratulated the military on what he said was a “landmark event for the country and the armed forces.”

Shoigu reported to Putin when the missiles entered service, a defence ministry official told AFP.

Defence officials have earlier said that the first Avangard regiment was placed in the Orenburg region in the Urals.

Putin unveiled the new weapon during his state of the nation address in 2018, saying it would defeat all existing missile defence systems.

He said at the time the missile was highly manoeuvrable and flew at 20 times the speed of sound.

Senior officials later said the intercontinental projectile was considerably faster.

Officials said the missile during tests reached the speed of Mach 27, or roughly 33,000 kilometres (20,500 miles) per hour.

Mach 1 is a unit of measurement equivalent to the speed of sound.