Home Europe Russia declares hypersonic Avangard missile operational

Russia declares hypersonic Avangard missile operational

Photo: Russian defense ministry

Russia’s newest hypersonic missile capable of travelling 27 times the speed of sound has been declared operational by the country’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu.

Shoigu reported this to Russian president Vladimir Putin during a conference call with top military officials.

Avangard was declared operational after undergoing a test launch from the Dombarovskiy missile base in December 2018. The test was deemed a success after the missile hit a designated target on the Kura shooting range at a distance of 6,000 kilometers.

Reports from earlier this year said that Russia halted work on the RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to focus on the development of Avangard.

Avangard is expected to be mounted on existing RS-1B ICBMs before being fitted to the Sarmat heavy ICBM in the future. As revealed by Russian president Putin earlier, Avangard incorporates composite materials to be able to withstand temperatures of up to 2,000C that are generated by flights at hypersonic speeds. It also features a boost-glide system that enables the missile to reach its target by gliding long distances after re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

The declaration of the missile’s operational status comes after both the US and Russia pulled out of the INF treaty that prohibited land-based missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. What is more, the New START treaty, which limits the number of missiles the US and Russia deploy, is expiring in February 2021 and could possibly not be extended. The Russian defense ministry said earlier that the Avangard missile was demonstrated to US officials according to New START treaty stipulations.