MOSCOW: Russian forces loaded an intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with the nuclear-capable “Avangard” glide vehicle into a launch silo in southern Russia, Defense Ministry announced on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle in 2018, adding it was a reply to US development of a new generation of arms and a US missile defense system that it could infiltrate.
According to a Defense Ministry TV, a ballistic missile being shifted to a launch silo, gradually raised into vertical position and then lowered into a tube in the Orenburg area near Kazakhstan. The US and Russia, by far the major nuclear countries, have both regretted regarding the stable disintegration of arms-control agreements which sought to slow the Cold War weapon race and decrease the risk of nuclear war.
Russia Loads Missile with Nuclear-capable Hypersonic Glide Vehicle into Launch Silo: Report
According to the Reuters, the US, China and Russia are developing a range of new arms systems, including hypersonic ones. Washington casts Beijing as its biggest competitor and Moscow as its biggest threat, while US President Joe Biden says that the current century will be defined by an existential competition with between autocracies and democracies.
Moscow says the post-Cold War dominance of Washington is crumbling and that the US has for years sown disorder across the planet while ignoring the interests of other countries.
