Russia ‘test-fires hypersonic missile’

RUSSIA yesterday claimed it had successfully tested a hypersonic missile – and released video footage of the launch.

The Kinzhal missile was launched from a MiG31 aircraft that took off from an airfield in southwestern Russia, Moscow claimed.

It is said to travel at ten times the speed of sound and have a range of 1,900km.

The missile was one of the weapons Vladimir Putin unveiled in his state-of-the-nation address earlier this month, ahead of a presidential election next Sunday. He had said in his speech that Russia had developed an arsenal of ‘invincible’ nuclear weapons that are immune to enemy detection.

The defence ministry released footage of two pilots preparing for a flight and then running towards a jet carrying a large missile. Set to rousing, patriotic music, the video showed a missile detaching from the airborne plane and gliding across the sky, leaving a fiery trail.

‘The launch went according to plan, the hypersonic missile hit its target,’ the ministry said.

Earlier this month, Mr Putin described the Kinzhal – named after a type of double-edged dagger – as ‘an ideal weapon’.