MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. Russia is developing hypersonic weapons based on principally new materials, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said on Thursday.

"Coming next are hypersonic weapons, which require the use of principally new materials and control systems that operate in a completely different medium, in plasma," the deputy defense minister said.

Today the Army is at the stage of a new scientific and technical revolution and principally new armament systems based on physical principles never used before in this field are coming to replace existing systems, the deputy defense minister said.

"Coming next are completely new principles of troop operations’ control because today one who learns to detect the enemy quicker and give the target designation - and all this has to be done in real time - is the one who actually wins," Borisov said.

The nature of all military conflicts shows that the time from making a decision to the final result has shortened sharply: previously these were hours and sometimes days, whereas now these are dozens of minutes or just minutes "and soon these will be seconds," the deputy defense minister said.

Russia expects a serious breakthrough in the field of laser and electromagnetic weapons, he went on. 

"Interaction between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Defense Ministry has specific goals, first of all, in developing the scientific and technical potential. We expect an especially serious breakthrough in the field of laser issues, electromagnetic weapons and so on," the deputy defense minister told journalists in the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Efforts should be sharply intensified to replenish the fundamental basis, which military science can use to create principally new examples of armaments, the deputy defense minister said.

"We [the Defense Ministry and the Russian Academy of Sciences] have mapped out a plan of action. On the one hand, our officers are learning in the direct meaning of this word - special courses are being organized for them. On the other hand, we have kindled academic institutes with our ideas to some extent and they are beginning to think about new approaches to modelling serious operations," the deputy defense minister said.