Defense, the new domain is the hypersonic. Russia from Friday operational with the Avangard

The New York Times reported that Russian military announced last Friday that it has deployed a hypersonic weapon that manages to escape American missile defense systems, kicking off a new chapter in the long arms race between the two most important nuclear powers. in the world.

American officials are hesitant that the Russians have a working hypersonic weapon - which sits atop a modified missile and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead at speeds in excess of 3.800 miles per hour.

Moscow has been working on this technology for years investing a lot of money and is determined to reverse the Cold War pattern, when it often struggled to catch up with American nuclear weapons systems. If the new system, called "Avangard“If it really worked, Moscow would have made a huge leap in quality, say American officials.

Hypersonic weapons fly very fast and can be maneuvered along unpredictable trajectories, making them incredibly difficult to track by current defense systems. Senior US military officials said the US plans to deploy its hypersonic weapons by 2022, but some experts believe the forecast is optimistic.

However, the Russian announcement could aim to encourage new diplomatic talks, according to former US diplomats. Moscow is anxious for President Trump to renew the last surviving arms control treaty between the United States and Russia, called NewSTART, which limits strategic nuclear missile launchers and stabilizes the number of warheads for both nations. The treaty expires in 2021, and the Trump administration has no plans to extend the treaty: Trump has repeatedly said he would only renew it if it included China and other nuclear powers. China, on the other hand, said it was not interested in any numerical limitations on its arsenal, which is one-fifth the size of America and Russia.

Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that "the world has changed" since the Obama administration negotiated the New START and arms control treaties can no longer be limited "to the United States and Russia".

Putin in the past had already used "nuclear diplomacy", announcing new weapons capable of threatening the territory of the United States. Trump has hinted more than once that he is in favor of the arms race, saying that American technology would eventually win. Yet, while the US military was once thought to be far ahead in hypersonic technology, the pace of development has slowed in recent years as China and Russia have given national priority to hypersonic weapons.

"We didn't do itSaid William B. Roper, Air Force Chief of Acquisitions and Technology. "Each Armed Force has recently initiated a major hypersonic weapons program, in a joint effort by the entire Department of Defense".

The United States Air Force has two hypersonic prototypes in the test phase, while their development proceeds at a very rapid pace, to have the weapons operational by 2022. Other divisions of the Pentagon, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, they have other initiatives on hypersonic weapons, but they are still very late. However, experts say the threat to the United States appears to be limited. The Russian system is being implemented in relatively small numbers, probably no more than a couple of dozen, according to Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Association for Arms Control. As a result, the system "does not significantly increase the threat to the United States and the world," any more than Russia's already fearsome nuclear arsenal, Kimball said. But he said the two countries should discuss hypersonic weapons as part of a new treaty. "Washington and Moscow should immediately begin talks on how new weapons technologies and all types of nuclear weapons should be regulated in such a way that neither side believes they can gain an advantage "by running" before the other.Kimball said.

The Avabgard

The Russian weapon - known as the hypersonic glide vehicle - can fly very low in the atmosphere, avoiding ballistic missile defense radars. It is mounted on an ICBM, allowing the warhead to be initially transported to a target on a traditional piece of technology. As it approaches the target it is designed to fly at hypersonic speed in an unpredictable path, making detection, tracking and interception extremely difficult. Most American missile defenses work by predicting the path of an incoming weapon and firing at an "interceptor".

On Friday, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, informed Putin that the first missile regiment armed with the Avangard vehicle was operational.

The chief of the strategic missile forces, the general Sergey Karakayev, said in a meeting later that day that the new missile was deployed with a military unit in the city of Yasny, in the Orenburg region, on the border with Kazakhstan. The Pentagon declined to comment on the Russian declaration, but other American officials said there was no reason to doubt that Moscow had deployed the new weapon. Nothing in the existing arms treaty would prohibit the new Russian weapon from being mounted on an intercontinental weapon. In November, prior to Friday's deployment of the hypersonic weapon, the Russian military exhibited it to American officials, as required by the treaty. The weapons Putin has unveiled in recent years have all been part of systems designed to reach the United States.

"The Russians are developing capabilities to reach and attack us ", said Brig. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, a high official of the Air Force, before the Russian technology was declared operational ”.

“The Avangard project was among the few new Russian strategic weapons that Putin unveiled during his State of the Union address in March 2018. Putin, on that occasion, boasted the new weapon: "it flies to its target like a meteorite, like a fireball ”and is“ absolutely invulnerable to any air or missile defense system!"

Russia began looking for ways to improve the capabilities of its strategic missile force after the United States withdrew from the anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2002 to expand its missile defenses. Russia has several other projects underway, including a long-range torpedo that could detonate a nuclear weapon on the American west coast and a nuclear-powered cruise missile.

Neither project would be covered by the New START Treaty and their development is still in an embryonic phase. The new US defense budget devotes substantial funds to the development of new weapons and new defenses against hypersonic weapons. Progress is covered in secrecy. But Lt. Colonel Robert Carver, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said hypersonic weapons "remain a technical research and engineering priority" for the Pentagon.

Unlike the new Russian system, two Air Force prototypes are designed to be transported and released from aircraft, not launched on top of ICBMs.

Dr Roper said the Air Force is moving more aggressively than usual to test prototypes in an effort to build new weapons faster. Even if the new prototypes work, Roper said he should not be satisfied:  the United States will have to continue developing new hypersonic weapons if it is to be hegemonic in this new domain of the hypersonic.

Defense, the new domain is the hypersonic. Russia from Friday operational with the Avangard