Since 2012, Russia has conducted five successful launches of an intercontinental ballistic missile with the Avangard hypersonic gliding cruise unit. Details of the tests were disclosed in the “Main Results of the Activities of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 2012-2020,” RIA Novosti reports.

The document also indicates new data on the speed that the Avangard can reach in flight. It is noted that it is Mach 28, which is about 7.5 kilometers per second. At the same time, it was previously reported that during the tests, these missiles developed a speed of about Mach 27.

In addition, the document states that the Russian Strategic Forces (Strategic Missile Forces) are already armed with four Avangard complexes.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Avangard missile system was created on the initiative of the Russian designer of rocket and rocket and space technology Herbert Efremov, who was then awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. The first regiment, armed with Avangards, took up combat duty in December 2019.

For the first time, Putin spoke about Avangard during his address to the Federal Assembly in March 2018. Then the Russian leader said that the winged warhead of the complex is capable of flying at a speed 20 times higher than the speed of sound and “goes to the target like a meteorite, like a ball of fire.”