The Russian leader also noted that the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty forced Russia to create hypersonic weapons.
As reported by TASS, on Saturday, during a video link on Gunsmith’s Day with Herbert Efremov, an engineer – designer of rocket and space technology, Russian President Vladimir Putin compared the work of Russian gunsmiths on the development of Avangard hypersonic missiles with the scale of the USSR nuclear project.
“It is difficult to overestimate the results of your work. You not only stood at the origins of this technological idea, but you are its author. In modern conditions for our country, the implementation of your idea is without any doubt comparable to the implementation of the Soviet Union’s nuclear and missile project, which was carried out by the outstanding Soviet scientists Kurchatov and Korolev”, – Putin said.
The Russian leader recalled that the US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 forced Russia to start developing hypersonic weapons.
“We had to create these weapons in response to the US deployment of a strategic missile defense system, which in the future would be able to actually neutralize, nullify our entire nuclear potential”, – Putin said.