Russia's Putin launches nuclear-powered submarine

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday launched a nuclear-powered submarine equipped with hypersonic Zircon missiles capable of travelling at several times the speed of sound.

Russian news agencies, referring to a video link from the Arctic port of Murmansk, said Putin launched the vessel, named Perm after a city in the Urals, with the order: "I hereby authorise!"

The Russian agencies, quoting documents associated with the launch, said the Perm is the first nuclear-powered submarine to be equipped with Zircon missiles as a standard feature.

Zircon missiles have a range of 900 km (560 miles) and their speed renders them very difficult to defend against.

The Perm is the sixth submarine in Russia's Yasen and Yasen-M classes built by the Sevmash shipyard near Murmansk.

The Russian agency reports said the vessel's construction specifications differed slightly from earlier models in the same class.

The agencies said that while in Murmansk, Putin visited a submarine named Arkhangelsk, also in the same class, and toured the Atomflot enterprise, which oversees Russia's icebreaker projects.