All news

New US hypersonic missile is not breakthrough weapon — experts

"The Soviet Union reached this stage back when it was creating 'product 4202', a hypersonic warhead," editor-in-chief of the Arsenal Otechestva magazine Viktor Murakhovsky noted

MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/. The US hypersonic missile, which was tested on Monday to develop a speed of Mach 5, is not a breakthrough weapon, polled military experts told TASS.

The development director of the Foundation for the Promotion of Technologies of the 21st Century, Ivan Konovalov, told TASS that the results of testing the newest US hypersonic missile could not be regarded as truly authentic.

"These tests are not trustworthy. First, the Americans said that they need far more time. Then there was a series of unsuccessful tests. Now they say that the research and development for this weapon has been completed and thorough flight tests carried out," Konovalov said.

He is certain that the new US missile will not become a "breakthrough weapon."

"The parameters that the Americans have disclosed do not exceed those declared in Russia," Konovalov said.

He stressed that Russia possessed competences enabling it to resist the new US missile. "Russia's newest air defense systems are an excellent counter-argument against this weapon," Konovalov said.

The editor-in-chief of the Arsenal Otechestva (Arsenal of the Fatherland) magazine, Viktor Murakhovsky, told TASS that the hypersonic weapons development level the Americans have achieved today existed back in the Soviet Union.

"Judging by what the Americans have disclosed, they have tested a hypersonic cruise missile demonssrator, capable of developing a speed of Mach 5. The Soviet Union reached this stage back when it was creating 'product 4202', a hypersonic warhead," the Murakhovsky said.

On Monday, the US Department of Defense said the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency had successfully tested a hypersonic missile having a speed five times that of the speed of sound. The Pentagon did not disclose the missile's name. It is known the missile was developed by the US corporation Raytheon Technologies.