MOSCOW, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russia's first regiment of the Avangard strategic intercontinental missile system with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) started its combat duty on Friday morning, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"Today, starting from ten (o'clock) in the morning, the Avangard strategic missile system assumed combat duty," Shoigu was quoted as saying during a conference call by the Zvezda TV channel run by the ministry.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at a meeting of the defense ministry, had forecast the move on Tuesday.
The Avangard missile is one of Russia's newest strategic weapons unveiled by Putin in an address to the Russian parliament in March 2018. He said it is capable of intercontinental flights at a speed 20 times that of sound.
In December, Putin said the Avangard missile is invulnerable to existing and prospective air defense and anti-missile systems of a potential enemy, after he attended a successful test launch.
During the test launch, the missile covered a distance of over 6,000 km between the Orenburg region in the Ural Mountains and the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East before hitting its target.
