(Reuters) – Russia has emplaced another strategic nuclear missile equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, which it says is its answer to U.S. missile defence, the Interfax news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Thursday.
Installed at a facility in the Orenburg province in southwest Russia, Avangard can be carried by an intercontinental ballistic missile and travel at up to 27 times the speed of sound (about 21,000 mph, 34,000 kph) as it manoeuvres towards its target.
Such missiles are harder for missile defences to intercept, and Russia considers them key to maintaining the nuclear status quo of mutually assured destruction.
Russia installed its first Avangard-equipped missile in 2019 at the same Orenburg facility.
(Reporting by Reuters. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
