After years of testing, Russia has put into use a rocket that other countries can use when it comes to modern weapons, according to President Putin.
Defense Minister Sjojgoe informed Putin that the rocket is today housed in a unit in the southern Urals. He spoke of a “milestone for the army and the entire country”. Putin sees the rocket as a technological breakthrough comparable to the launch of the first Soviet satellite in 1957.
Hypersonically
According to the Russians, the Avangard rocket is capable of reaching hypersonic speeds, or at least five times the speed of the sound (around 6200 kilometers per hour).
Like other intercontinental missiles, the weapon flies high into the atmosphere after launch. When returning to the surface of the earth, the warhead then ‘slides’ towards the target at an enormous speed, while at the same time making sharp maneuvers.
According to Putin, the rocket is practically impossible to take down. Defense systems are useless, he said at a press conference in March last year, when he announced the rocket.
New arms race
In a test a year ago, the missile flew 27 times faster than the noise, according to a Deputy Minister of Defense. A target was hit about 6,000 kilometers away on the Kamchatka peninsula.
The roaring words from Russia about the Avangard fit in with the flaring arms race between the US and Russia. In February, US President Trump canceled an important treaty on arms control between the two countries.
The so-called INF treaty came from the Cold War. It was signed in Washington in 1987 by US President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev.
After 31 years, the INF treaty finally came to an end in August:
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