...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...says his country has developed new "Avant-garde" hypersonic intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) that are capable of traveling over 20 times faster than sound, guaranteeing Russia’s military parity with the United States.
"Faster than Mach 20, twenty times the speed of sound. I don't think other countries will develop such a weapon in the coming years ... we already have it," Putin said during an annual televised phone-in with the Russian public on Thursday.
Mach is a unit for measuring speed, especially of an aircraft, in relation to the speed of sound, which is roughly 1,192 kilometers per hour. Hence, Mach 20 is used when the object travels with the speed of 23,040 kilometers per hour, which enables it, for instance, to cover the whole circumference of the Earth along the equator in about one hour and 44 minutes.
The Russian leader also said that the new "Avant-garde" missile is capable of changing direction and altitude, which makes it unstoppable. He, however, said that the missile was in production and that it would enter service next year.
Putin also touched upon some features of another hypersonic missile, which is already in service, saying, "The air-launched hypersonic system Dagger, it is a hypersonic missile that flies at 10 times the speed of sound."
The Russian president further briefly commented on a laser weapons system, which is also already in service by the Russian army, and that a new, more powerful ballistic missile, called Sarmat, would be ready in 2020.
Sarmat, which was test-launched in March, has been touted to have virtually no range limit. It is able to carry massive payloads across the North or the South Pole to anywhere on the planet, and is planned to replace the Soviet-era Voevoda.