Just a few short days after Russian President Vladimir Putin used his state-of-the-nation speech to deliver a stern warning to the United States that Russia possesses hypersonic weapons that can render NATO’s U.S.-led missile defense system completely “useless,” AFP reports that Russia has confirmed it successfully test-fired “the ideal weapon.”
The high-precision Kinzhal (Dagger) missile was launched from a MiG-31 supersonic interceptor jet that took off from an airfield in the South Military District in Russia’s southwest, the defense ministry said.
“The launch went according to plan, the hypersonic missile hit its target,” the ministry added.
The ministry released video footage showing two pilots gearing up for a flight and then running towards a jet with a large missile slung beneath its underbelly.
Set to rousing, patriotic music, the video then shows a missile detaching from the airborne plane and gliding across the dark sky, leaving a fiery trail behind.
Экипаж истребителя МиГ-31 Воздушно-космических сил #ВКС выполнил практический учебно-боевой пуск гиперзвуковой ракеты высокоточного авиационного ракетного комплекса #Кинжал в заданном районе. Пуск прошел штатно, гиперзвуковая ракета поразила заданную цель на полигоне pic.twitter.com/xLguUwGrQW
— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) March 10, 2018
Finally, as a reminder, last week, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that the hypersonic missile “can rip [US] air defenses apart,” adding that “at the moment [the US defense shield] poses no serious military threat to us, except for provocations.”
Time for some more sanctions on Russia?
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