Russia ‘puts first unstoppable hypersonic nukes into service’

RUSSIA yesterday boasted it had put the world’s first hypersonic nuclear missiles on combat duty.

Defence minister Sergei Shoig said the Avangard was capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound.

The military claimed it can make sharp manoeuvres on its way to a target, unlike regular missiles, and was impossible to intercept.

Vladimir Putin has compared the breakthrough to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite.

The US has no equivalent and the Pentagon said it was a couple of years away from having hypersonic weapons. The intercontinental-range Avangard flies high above the atmosphere and has new composite materials to withstand extreme temperatures.

Mr Shoig revealed it had been tested over the past year and put into service in the Orenburg region in the southern Urals Mountains.

He told military leaders at a conference: ‘I congratulate you on this landmark event for the military and the entire nation.’

Mr Putin this week bragged that for the first time in history, Russia was leading the world in developing a new class of weapons and the West was playing catch-up.

US officials have talked about putting a layer of sensors in space to detect enemy missiles more quickly.

They also plan to study the idea of basing interceptors in orbit to strike incoming enemy missiles during the first minutes of flight when the booster engines are still burning.

Earlier this month Donald Trump launched the US Space Force.

It is not intended to put troops in orbit but a 16,000-strong service will protect assets such as satellites.