HYPERSONIC MISSILE TEST SUCCESSFUL

Russia said on Monday it had successfully tested a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin has touted as part of a new generation of missile systems without equal in the world.

The defence ministry said in a statement that the missile had been fired from the Admiral Gorshkov, a warship located in the White Sea, and travelled at around seven times the speed of sound before hitting a ground target on the coastline of the Barents Sea, more than 350 km away.

“The tactical and technical characteristics of the Tsirkon missile were confirmed during the tests,” the ministry said.

Some Western experts have questioned how advanced Russia's new generation of weapons is, while recognizing that the combination of speed, manoeuvrability and altitude of hypersonic missiles makes them difficult to track and intercept.

Russia plans to fit the Tsirkon missile system to its subs and surface ships.