MOSCOW, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- New Russian weapons will ensure the security of the country without increasing costs or drawing it into new arms race, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.
"The Supreme Commander noted that all promising weapons systems that he spoke about a year ago now exist and some in operation," Shoigu said in a statement commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to the Russian Federal Assembly earlier in the day.
Shoigu said that the most important advantage of the newest Russian systems is their "unattainable efficiency," while their development costs are hundreds of times lower than any foreign systems including the U.S. missile defense.
He said that an infrastructure for the deployment of the Avangard intercontinental missile system regiment was being actively developed in the Urals Orenburg region as the regiment is expected to start its combat duty in December this year.
Sea tests of the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle capable of carrying nuclear payload to an unlimited distance was successfully completed, and the personnel of the submarine that will carry the Poseidon was trained, Shoigu said.
The crews of MiG-31 warplanes, equipped with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, have already performed over 380 flights on air patrol missions over the Black and Caspian Seas, he said.
Russia has begun the next stage of testing the heavy intercontinental Sarmat ballistic missile system, Shoigu said.
