Russia’s Defense Ministry says it has successfully tested one of the “invincible” missiles that President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month could deliver a warhead at hypersonic speed and pierce US defenses.
“A MiG-31 fighter crew of the Russian Aerospace Forces conducted a combat training launch of a hypersonic missile of the Kinzhal high-precision air missile system in the designated area,” the ministry said in statement Saturday.
“The hypersonic missile confirmed its technical operational performance and timing data of the Kinzhal missile system,” the statement said.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released what it described as footage of the Kinzhal launch. The video appears to show a military jet carrying a missile. Some parts of the missile are blurred.
The weapon, designed to eliminate targets on the ground and at sea, hit its assigned target at a training ground, the ministry said, and described the launch as “normal.”
Russian military personnel have been trained to carry out day and nighttime flights with the weapon in any weather conditions, the ministry said.
The ministry said that, due to the high flight characteristics of the MiG-31 aircraft and advanced high-maneuverable hypersonic technology, “the Kinzhal has no analogues in the world” — a claim US officials have downplayed as “election rhetoric” ahead of Russia’s presidential vote on March 18.
