Putin Hails Success of Avangard Hypersonic Missile System Test

Local Editor

Russian President Vladimir Putin commended his military forces for carrying out a successful test launch of the cutting-edge Avangard hypersonic missile system.

"On my instructions the industrial enterprises and the Defense Ministry have prepared for and carried out the final test of this system," Putin said at a meeting with members of his government on Wednesday. "The test was completely successful; all technical parameters were verified."

The test on Wednesday saw an Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle launched from the Dombarovskiy missile base in Russia’s southern Ural Mountains, successfully hitting its designated target 6,000 kilometers away in Kamchatka’s Kura shooting range.

"The Avangard is invulnerable to intercept by any existing and prospective missile defense means of the potential adversary," Putin said after the test.

When first unveiling the Avangard in his state-of-the-nation address in March, Putin said the hypersonic system has an intercontinental range and could reach speeds 20 times faster than the speed of sound when flying in the atmosphere.

This, according to Putin, allows the missile to bypass all of world’s existing missile defense systems.

Emphasizing that no other country in the world had hypersonic weapons, Putin said then that the Avangard could fly so fast because of the new composite materials that allow it to withstand temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Celsius caused by hypersonic flights through the atmosphere.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team