When President Putin unveiled the Kremlin’s arsenal of hypersonic missiles during a state-of-the-nation speech in Moscow, he boasted that the weapons were “invincible”.
The nuclear-capable Avangard, Kinzhal and Zircon missiles, Putin told members of the Russian elite in 2018, were “without global equivalents” and would render Nato armaments useless. He illustrated his comments with an animated video showing Russian nuclear warheads raining down on Florida.
“[The Avangard] flies towards its target like a meteorite, like a fireball,” Putin said, prompting applause from generals and ministers. Putin’s claims were exaggerated but there was no mistaking his enthusiasm for the cutting-edge technology that allows the missiles to travel at many times the speed of sound.
Yet, in place of gratitude, at least a dozen scientists whose theoretical