A computer simulation shows the Avangard hypersonic vehicle maneuvering to bypass missile defenses en route to target. (RU-RTR Russian Television via AP)
MOSCOW, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Russia's newest Avangard missile system with a hypersonic glide vehicle does not go beyond the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the United States, a senior Russian military officer said Wednesday.
"The Avangard complex is equipped with a ballistic missile, so all procedures established by the New START treaty will be applied to it," said Viktor Poznikhir, acting chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
Addressing the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, he said that the Avangard missile system will enter service with the country's Strategic Missile Forces by the end of this year.
The Avangard is one of the newest strategic weapons unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an address to the Russian parliament in March 2018. He said the missile is capable of intercontinental flights at a speed 20 times that of the speed of sound.
In December, Putin said the Avangard missile is invulnerable to current 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 Urals and the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East before hitting a target.
The New START treaty was signed in 2010 between Russia and the United States and entered into force on Feb. 5, 2011.
The pact requires both countries to cut nuke warhead numbers down to 1,550 by Feb. 5, 2018 and reduce the number of delivery vehicles, including missiles and bombers, to 700-800 for each side.
The treaty expires in 2021 and it remains uncertain whether Russia and the United States will extend it, a cornerstone of the global arms control regime.