By 2025 Russian army will switch over to new hypersonic weapons
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Sunday that by 2025 new types of hypersonic weapons will be supplied to the troops. A corresponding statement is posted on the Ministry’s website.
“The state armament program, which will extend from 2018-2025, will include the development of promising types of armament and special military equipment” the document says, as cited by TASS. “The new armament program is intended to complete the development of fundamentally new models of hypersonic weapons, intelligent robotic systems, weapons based on new physical principles, as well as a number of traditional models of the next-generation of armament and special military equipment, and deliver them to troops.”
It is noted that completion of the intended project will not be possible without the involvement of the scientific community.
Earlier, the Russian news agency TASS, citing military analyst Viktor Litovkin, reported that the program’s main focus is fitting strategic missiles with hypersonic capability. First will be the RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a separating warhead, and a prototype of the new RS-26 intercontinental ballistic missile.
However, most Russian military experts consider the Zircon missile to be the main type of hypersonic weapon.
On Saturday, it was reported that the new Russian hypersonic anti-ship Zircon missile, in a speed test, reached a velocity eight times the speed of sound.