'Impossible to Intercept': Russia Places Hypersonic Ballistic Missile With Nuclear Capabilities into Launch Silo

Russia has loaded an intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with the nuclear-capable "Avangard" hypersonic glide vehicle into a launch silo on Nov. 16.

Knewz.com reported that the loading of the missile into a launch silo in southern Russia was broadcast on the Russian Defense Ministry TV channel, Zvezda.

The footage reportedly showed the intercontinental ballistic missile being transported to the launch silo at the Dombarovsky missile base in the Orenburg region in Southern Russia, near Kazakhstan, then gradually raised upright before being lowered into the shaft, per Reuters.

The outlet also reported that the Orenberg launch silo also houses the first Avangard-equipped missile, which was installed there in 2019.

Announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, the nuclear-capable Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle was Russia's answer to the development of new-gen weapons and missile defense systems in the U.S.

Along with the Avangard, Putin unveiled six "next-generation weapons" at the 2018 Presidential Address to Russia’s Federal Assembly in Moscow. That included the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Zircon and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle, and the Sarmat super-heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, per Kyiv Independent.

According to Putin, Russia was "forced" to develop hypersonic weapons due to the United States' withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, the Kyiv Independent reported.

"We had to create these weapons in response to the U.S. deployment of strategic missile defense systems, which in the future would be capable of virtually neutralizing our nuclear potential," the outlet reported him saying.

Here is how the Avangard works: upon approaching the target, the glide vehicle detaches itself from the rocket and veers off outside the trajectory of the rocket at hypersonic speeds of up to 27 times the speed of sound, or roughly 21,000 miles per hour.

Fitted with either a 2-megaton nuclear or conventional high explosive warhead, the Avangard weighs around 4,400 pounds.

According to the Kyiv Independent, the Avangard was test-fired, attached to an SS-19 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, from the Dombarovsky missile base in December 2018. The outlet reported that the hypersonic glide vehicle flew the missile for over 3,700 miles before it hit the target in the Kura shooting range in Kamchatka, Russia.

Following the success, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced in 2019 that the Strategic Missile Forces would deploy "31 launchers [equipped] with the Yars and Avangard ICBMs" on combat duty.

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With Russia polishing up its nuclear arsenal, recent reports suggest that Putin's allies are also not sitting idle.

Knewz wrote early in November that North Korea is reportedly gearing up for another nuclear test, as new satellite images suggest that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site is being rebuilt using "slave labor" from Hwasong, the largest prison camp in the country.

"Nearly 80 years after Allied air forces took aerial photographs of Auschwitz-Birkenau, satellite imagery plays a critical role in documenting and understanding the core of the Kim regime's crimes against humanity: its political prison camps… This shows evidence of a physical connection between the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and Hwasong concentration camp," said Raymond Ha of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), according to the Daily Express.