MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. The second regiment of UR-100N UTTKh intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with the Avangard hypersonic warheads will assume combat alert in Russia’s Strategic Missile Force before the end of 2022, a source close to Russia’s Defense Ministry told TASS on Friday.

The second regiment of Avangard hypersonic missile systems will assume combat posture in the Yasny missile formation, the source specified.

"Under the existing plans, the second regiment of Avangards will assume combat alert as part of silo-based launchers and a command post of a regiment of the Strategic Missile Force’s 13th missile division approximately in December 2022," the source said.

The Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (part of Tactical Missiles Corporation), the developer and manufacturer of Avangard hypersonic missile systems, declined to comment to TASS on this information.

It was earlier reported that the first regiment of Avangard hypersonic missile systems of the Strategic Missile Force’s Yasny division (the Orenburg Region) that went on combat alert with two silo-based launchers and a command post in late 2019 was brought to its full strength by the end of 2021.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at the single military output acceptance day on January 20 that the first regiment had been fully rearmed for Avangard ICBMs with hypersonic boost-glide vehicles.

The Avangard boost-glide vehicle is capable of flying at a hypersonic speed of up to Mach 27 (about 32,000 km/h) in the dense layers of the atmosphere, maneuvering by its flight path and its altitude and breaching any anti-missile defense. The Avangard hypersonic weapon was first mentioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2018.