Putin oversees test of new hypersonic super rocket

That said, Russian President Vladimir Putin's newest missile system is created to grab American attention far more than it is to advance Russia's nuclear destructive capability, Washington Examiner reported.I note this in light of Russia's apparently successful Avangard hypersonic weapons test on Wednesday.

"The new Avangard system is impervious to current and future air defense and missile defense systems of a potential enemy", he noted.

Launched from the Dombarovsky missile base in the Ural Mountains, the weapon struck a practice target 3,700 miles away on the Kamchatka peninsula.

The Avangard system uses an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and a hypersonic glide vehicle to travel at 20 times the speed of sound.

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Moscow feared that the U.S. missile shield could erode its nuclear deterrent, and Putin announced in 2004 that Russian Federation was working on a new hypersonic weapon.

Little is verifiably known about the glider that was successfully test-launched by Russian military on Wednesday - essentially completing trials.

Russia's new strategic weapon has rendered any missile defences useless at a small fraction of their cost, officials said. He said Avangard "heads for its target like a meteorite".

A video released by the ministry showed only the first phase of the test, when the glider vehicle was contained within a UR-100N UTTKh missile (in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation terms, the SS-19 Stiletto).

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That speed, in conjunction with the platform's controlled maneuverability during its descent, makes the missile just about indefensible utilizing existing missile defense systems employed by the United States (or any other country for that matter). It's a big moment in the life of the armed forces and in the life of the country.

Kofman wrote that even though the documentation Putin unveiled then proved nothing, there was no doubt that a real hypersonic boost-glide vehicle was being tested.

Russian Federation has pointed to US missile defenses to justify the development of hypersonic boost-glide missiles that can carry nuclear weapons. US officials also expressed concerns about the agency's efforts in developing the missiles falling far behind in comparison to potential adversaries.

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