In March 2018, as part of his Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, the Russian president Vladimir Putin announced five novel nuclear or dual-use weapons systems, popularly dubbed "super weapons" (Russian: супероружие, romanized: superoruzhie).^[1][2]

Putin stated that together the weapons provided Russia with a strategic capability that was impossible for America to intercept, restoring Russia's nuclear deterrence capability in the face of American technological developments following America's withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.^[3]

The "super weapons" named were:

• the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle
• the 9M730 Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile
• the 3M22 Zircon scramjet powered anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile
• the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile
• the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle
• the RS-28 Sarmat liquid-fueled, MIRV-equipped super-heavy ICBM

Deployment

Remnant presented by Ukraine as a warhead of a Kinzhal missile in May 2023^[4]

The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile started test operations in December 2017, and has been deployed since 2018.^[5]

On 27 December 2019, TASS reported that the first missile regiment armed with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle officially entered combat duty.^[6]

As of 2020, the 9M730 Burevestnik nuclear-powered missile was still under development. The Nyonoksa radiation accident appears to have been caused by an accident during testing of a prototype.^[7]

TASS reported that the first contract for the production of the RS-28 Sarmat missiles was signed in August 2022.^[8]

On 16 January 2023, TASS reported that the first batch of the Poseidon nuclear-powered UUVs had been manufactured.^[9]

Combat history

Of the five systems, only one is known to have been used in action; the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, which has been used in a non-nuclear capacity during the Russia-Ukraine War.

In 2023, it was claimed that a Kinzhal missile had been shot down by the Ukrainian air defense forces using a MIM-104 Patriot missile defence system.^[10][11][12] On 10 May 2023, the Ukrainian politician Vitali Klitschko showed fragments of the alleged downed Kinzhal missile for Bild journalists in Kyiv.^[13] In contradiction to Ukrainian claims, Russian media reported that the fragments closely resembled the concrete-piercing BETAB-500ShP aerial bomb.^[14][15] On 16 May 2023, Ukraine's air command claimed to have intercepted all six Kinzhal missiles that had been launched during a Russian attack.^[16]

References

See also

• Nuclear triad
• Hypersonic weapon
• Wunderwaffe