MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. The Russian authorities will take additional measures to develop new weapons systems for the national army and navy, President Vladimir Putin said at the National Center for Defense Management.
Earlier on Wednesday, the President arrived to the center to watch the test launch of the Avangard hypersonic missile.
"As for this topic in general, I know how the work is organized. Later we will talk with the general designer again, talk with other colleagues. We will take additional measures to unconditionally provide results in all similar issues the General Staff and the Defense Ministry consider promising for the equipment of the army and fleet with the latest weapons systems, including hypersonic weapons," Putin said. His speech was broadcast on the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kremlin’s press-service reported that the Defense Ministry had carried out a successful certification flight test of the Avangard missile system armed with a hypersonic gliding warhead following instructions from the Russian Armed Forces’ Commander-in-Chief.
While in flight the winged gliding warhead carried out vertical and horizontal controlled maneuvers and hit the designated target on the proving ground’s combat field.
The launch was performed by a strategic missile force crew from the Dombarovsky site at a hypothetical target at the Kura proving ground in the Kamchatka region.
A New Year gift to Russia
"This is a great success and a big victory. This is a wonderful, excellent gift for the country for the New Year," Putin said after the test.
The President addressed to the general designer, engineers, workers and to all who created this promising system.
"I congratulate you on this big event in the life of the Armed Forces and in ensuring the security of the Russian state," the Russian leader said.
According to his assessment, the new avant-garde hypersonic system is not vulnerable to today's and promising air defense and anti-missile defense systems of a potential enemy.
"It was a hard and time consuming work which required breakthrough solutions in principal areas, and all this was done by our scientists, designers, and engineers," he concluded.
He stressed that the new Avangard hypersonic system is not vulnerable to today's and promising air defense and missile defense systems of a potential enemy.
Putin said that the Avangard system will be put into service next year adding that a special regiment will be formed to be on combat duty.
"We will continue to work according to the plans that were designed for this system and other promising systems for equipping the army and the fleet," the head of the Russian state assured, expressing the hope that in the future work will be arranged in the same manner.
About Avangard system
The Avangard is a strategic intercontinental ballistic missile system equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle. According to open sources, the ‘breakthrough’ weapon was developed by the Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (the town of Reutov, the Moscow Region) and was tested from 2004. The glide vehicle is capable of flying at hypersonic speed in the dense layers of the atmosphere, maneuvering by its flight path and its altitude and breaching any anti-missile defense.
The new weapon was unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his State of the Nation address to the Federal Assembly on March 1. Later, the Russian leader said during his annual Q&A session on June 7 that "the Avangard system is already in the process of its manufacture and has entered its serial production and in 2019 we are planning to deliver it to the Armed Forces."
On December 17, in an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, , Strategic Missile Force Commander Colonel-General Sergei Karakayev said that first Avangard hypersonic missile systems will enter combat duty in 2019 at the Dombarovsky missile division based in the Orenburg Region in the south Urals.