BRUSSELS, March 14. /TASS/. Russian hypersonic weapons show NATO needs to deploy layered air defenses, Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the alliance, said as he presented its annual report.

"Hypersonic missiles is of course, a real challenge. It demonstrates that Russia has invested heavily also in more advanced weapon systems," he said. "It demonstrates also the need for a layered air defense, it demonstrates the need for air and missile defense, and it demonstrates the need for not only high quality but mass. Because one of the strategies we have seen in Ukraine is of course to try to overwhelm the air defenses by sending in a lot of missiles and drones at the same time."

Stoltenberg said NATO has the capabilities to defend against Russian hypersonic missiles. In a bid to corroborate this assertion, the secretary general repeated Ukrainian statements that by using US-made Patriot air defense systems "they have been able to shoot down several hypersonic Russian missiles."

"So that's also the reason why, as part of our defense plans, as part of what we do now to implement the biggest reinforcement to our collective defense in decades, air defense is a critical part of that effort," he said.