The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has considered a success the tests carried out for a naval version of a hypersonic missile that exceeds nine times the speed of sound and that, according to him, will begin to be operational in early 2022, in the middle of the suspicion of the West before the development of this type of weapons and in full tension by Ukraine.
On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the successful test of a ‘Tsirkon’ missile fired from a ship and hitting a target 400 kilometers away. Moscow had already shown signs of progress in the development of this weapon, towards which Beijing would also be taking steps.
Putin hopes that it will never go to the “extreme” of having to use it, that “common sense and responsibility will prevail.” However, he has confirmed that Russian forces will be able to dispose of the new missiles in a matter of a few months, reports the Sputnik news agency.
The Russian president has taken advantage of a speech during an economic forum to warn, in fact, that any potential threat from Ukraine will receive a response, in line with what the United States Government or NATO as a whole have already expressed, that they suspect the movement of troops on the Ukrainian border.
“If attack weapons appear on the territory of Ukraine that reach Moscow in 7 or 10 minutes, five minutes in the case of hypersonic weapons (…) we will have to create something similar,” said Putin, who has marked as a “red line” the mobilization of Ukraine or its international allies.
