Russia says first hypersonic missiles enter service

Russia's defence minister told President Vladimir Putin on Friday the first Avangard hypersonic missiles had been put into service, in a move hailed as a major coup for Moscow.

Analysts say Russia is the first country to put into combat service intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with hypersonic weapons that Putin said can travel 20 times faster than the speed of sound.

"The first missile regiment equipped with latest strategic missiles with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered service at 10 am Moscow time on December 27", Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a meeting in televised remarks.

He congratulated the military on what he said was a "landmark event for the country and the armed forces." Shoigu reported to Putin when the missiles entered service, a defence ministry official told AFP.

Defence officials have earlier said that the first Avangard regiment was placed in the Orenburg region in the Urals.

"This is the first intercontinental ballistic missile with the hypersonic glide vehicle in the world," Vasily Kashin, a senior research fellow at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, told AFP.

"It's a major scientific achievement."