Russia’s new hypersonic weapon is ready to wage war – minister

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday said on Saturday that the country’s a new hypersonic weapon, which is claimed to be able to strike the United States, is ready for war.
Shoigu said in a conference call with Russian military leaders that the first missile unit that has the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle had entered combat duty.
Avangard was entered combat duty with a unit in the Orenburg region in the southern Ural Mountains, said Russian Strategic Missile Forces chief Sergei Karakayev.
The new weapon is able to travel at least five times the speed of sound, or about one mile per second.
It was one of the six new weapons that President Vladimir Putin had announced in March 2018. Putin claimed at the time that the hypersonic weapon was capable of reaching targets at 20 times the speed of sound and that it could strike “like a fireball.” He also added that the device had already put on serial production.
Dubbed Kinzhal meaning dagger in Russian, the new air-to-ground hypersonic missile – tested at least three times – is set to join the Kremlin’s arsenal as early as 2020.
Avangard, which has been on the make for three decades, has been designed to sit atop an intercontinental ballistic missile. Once launched, the missile uses aerodynamic forces to sail on top of the atmosphere.
Source: CNBC