MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. Russia’s hypersonic weapons help maintain global stability and strategic balance, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
In an interview for the special project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin", the head of state pointed out that the Americans had launched their program for creating a missile defense with the aim of upsetting strategic stability and strategic balance.
"While developing their anti-ballistic missile system, the Americans wanted to upset this strategic stability and balance thinking that if they created a missile defense umbrella, then the other side wouldn’t be able to respond adequately if they use nuclear weapons," he noted.
"However, after having developed these modern [hypersonic] systems, including those which easily evade any anti-missile ballistic system, we maintain this strategic stability and strategic balance. It is essential not only for us, but also for global security," Putin explained.
Replying to a remark by TASS interviewer Andrei Vandenko referring to the Chekhov principle, "if there is a hypersonic rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it will unquestionably go off," Putin said real life followed different principles.
"That may be true for the theater. In security and political reality, another rule governs. It will go off if it is hanging on one stage. And if a similar rifle is hanging on another stage, it is unlikely that the person near where it is hanging will take the liberty to use it," he said.
Putin explained that this is exactly the situation that is called strategic stability and the balance of power.
It is this balance of power that has enabled the world to avoid any major armed conflicts since World War II, Putin noted.
Russia’s hypersonic weapons
Earlier, Putin said that as soon as Moscow created hypersonic weapons, other countries’ gargantuan spending on deterrence programs would become meaningless. For the first time ever, he said, Russia was ahead of the other countries from the standpoint of cutting-edge weapons, including hypersonic ones.
At the end of last year, the first regiment armed with Russia’s Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles - a weapon unparalleled in the world - had entered combat duty. Tests were continuing of other state-of-the-art weapon systems, including the hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile Tsirkon and the next-generation Sarmat silo-launched strategic missiles.
In recent months, the United States repeatedly admitted that it is lagging behind Russia and China in the production of hypersonic weapons. US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on December 7, 2019 said that the United States would have to catch up with other competitors. He declared that the funding of research into hypersonic ground, air and sea-based warheads had been doubled. According to US media, nine such military projects were underway. Flight tests of four prototypes are scheduled for 2020.
Episode 6 of the video interview is available at https://putin.tass.ru/en.