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US tries to catch up with Russia in development of air-based hypersonic missiles — expert

Previously, US Air Force reported successful trials of a prototype hypersonic weapon within the ARRW program

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/. The US makes attempts to catch up with Russia in development of air-based hypersonic missiles, Colonel General Viktor Yesin, former head of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces headquarters, told TASS.

"The US trials of an air-based missile were unable to achieve Mach 5 speed. This is where hypersonic speed begins. But our Kinzhal missile has long reached Mach 8," he noted.

The expert noted that hypersonic missiles can be either powered (cruise) or engineless (glide vehicles) - an example of the latter being the Avangard missile, which can exceed Mach 20 speed.

"But they are incomparable, because powered hypersonic missiles are much more complex than engineless," Yesin added.

In Russia, cruise hypersonic missiles were built, in particular, by NPO Mashinostroyeniya, who developed the naval-based Zircon missile.

Previously, US Air Force reported successful trials of a prototype hypersonic weapon within the ARRW program. The AGM-183A missile has achieved speed five times the speed of sound.

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