The Russian navy plans to equip its submarines with modern hypersonic weapons, the country's navy chief said in an interview published on Friday.
"Let no one doubt that we will do it," the head of the navy, Nikolai Yevmenov, said in an interview published in the armed forces newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda. The admiral did not name a date for the conversion of the submarine fleet to the new missiles.
He told the newspaper that there are currently 10 types of submarines in service. The modern Kalibr-type guided missiles have been tested on second-generation submarines, he said, "and today, all submarines in service can be equipped with them, including the strategic submarine cruisers."
The next step would then be to upgrade with hypersonic missiles, Yevmenov said.
Russia has so far unveiled three types of hypersonic missiles, the Awangard, the Zirkon and the Kinschal. They are all currently considered practically unstoppable for air defence systems because of their very high velocity.
The Zirkon missiles are ship-based and can potentially also be equipped with nuclear warheads. So far, however, only one ship in the Russian fleet has been equipped with them.
