Russia has just revealed that its hypersonic weapon, the Avangard , is already operational, making this country the first to possess a new class of nuclear weapon against which other military powers are currently unable to defend themselves.
And it is that the United States and Russia have been working on this type of weapon for years. Russia has already built one (ahead of the race against the United States to develop hypersonic weapons) and it is especially striking: the missile can carry two-megaton nuclear warheads, travel at 27 times the speed of sound, and maneuver quickly to dodge any defense system. antimissile that tries to block it thanks to a glider vehicle installed in Avangard. In addition, it can withstand temperatures of up to 2,000 ° C as a result of flying through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.
It is launched on top of an ICBM, but unlike a missile warhead that follows a predictable path, it can perform abrupt maneuvers in the atmosphere, making it much more difficult to intercept. Almost impossible.
Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted that the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle is evidence that Russia is now the world’s leading engineer of a new class of weapons.
Putin compared this technological advance to the Soviet launch of the first satellite in 1957.
Like a “meteor” or a “fireball”
Avangard will be mounted on RS-18B ICBMs but, unlike a missile warhead that follows a predictable path, it can perform rough maneuvers in the atmosphere, making it much more difficult to intercept. According to Putin, it can hit “like a ball of fire.”
“No country has hypersonic weapons, much less hypersonic weapons of intercontinental range,” said the Russian president.
The head of Russia’s Strategic Missile Troops, General Sergei Karakayev, added that Avangard was commissioned with a unit in the Orenburg region of the southern Urals.
The Avangard can reach almost anywhere in the world and evade a US-built missile shield.
The device in question has already entered series production.
The United States, for its part, is weighing its defense strategies. The Pentagon has also been developing hypersonic weapons (like the Scramjet) and Defense Secretary Mark Esper predicted that the United States will soon have one of its own.
China has already tested its own hypersonic glide vehicle, which is believed to be capable of traveling at least five times the speed of sound.
Russia appears to be at the forefront in hypersonic betting and China is also developing such systems, while the United States appears to be somewhat behind schedule.
All of this comes at a time when the entire web of gun control agreements inherited from the Cold War is collapsing. US President Donald Trump wants Russia and China to sign a new nuclear pact after abandoning the agreement sealed in 1987 by Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
