Russia's hypersonic nuclear missile stirs arms race concerns

Putin boasts the new weapon can penetrate any defensive shield.

A new hypersonic nuclear missile that Russia says it has deployed is fueling concerns of a new arms race with the U.S. as the clock ticks down on the expiration of the last treaty limiting the strategic arsenals of the two former Cold War foes.

Russia’s first regiment of Avangard missiles was commissioned in the Urals region of Orenberg, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday, days after President Vladimir Putin boasted that the new we a pon could penetrate any defensive shield.

“Not a single country possesses hypersonic weapons, let alone continental-range hypersonic weapons,” Putin told military chiefs. “They’re trying to catch up with us.”

The Russian leader unveiled the Avangard and five other new-generation weapons in his annual state-of-the-nation address in March 2018.

The new weapon has gone into service amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of a 1987 treaty banning deployment of short- and medium-range missiles, accusing Russia of being in breach of its terms. The Kremlin denied the allegation.

The two sides are deadlocked over the future of the 2010 New START treaty, which limits their nuclear arsenals and is due to expire in February 2021. The Trump administration has so far rebuffed Russian calls to begin talks on extending the treaty, saying that any new accord should include China, which refuses to accept limits on its much smaller nuclear capability.

U.S. experts visited a facility with Avangard missiles in November as part of a system of mutual inspections under the treaty.

The general who oversees U.S. nuclear forces, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, said in February that hypersonic missiles can strike America within 15 minutes, half the time of ballistic weapons.

Vladimir Putin