Russia Re-Equips ICBM Division With World’s Fastest Reentry Vehicles: Avangard Hypersonic Glide Vehicle Arsenal Grows

<p >The Russian Strategic Missile Forces have completed the re-equipment of an intercontinental range ballistic missile division with Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles, marking a further expansion of the arsenal of unique strategic nuclear delivery systems. Re-equipment of the division, which is located in the Orenburg region near the Russian-Kazakh border, was confirmed on December 18, 2024. The Avangard vehicle <a href=" service </a>in December 2019 with the 13th Red Banner Rocket Division, after which the unit reached full strength in 2021. A <a href=" >second unit </a>went on combat alert in mid-2022. The system first began development in the Soviet Union in the 1980s to respond to very large scale American investments in missile defence assets, with work on its development resuming in the mid-2000s in response to Washington’s withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The glide vehicle's scramjet engine design enables it to deliver nuclear strikes at speeds exceeding Mach 27 while retaining high manoeuvrability, which is thought to make it effectively impossible to intercept. Larger Russian ICBMs are estimated to be able to carry up to twelve of the vehicles, allowing each missile to engage twelve separate targets with a large thermonuclear warheads. </p><p ><img src=" title="Russian Sarmat ICBM and Avangard Glide Vehicle (artwork)"></p><p >Since its unveiling in March 2018 the Avangard system has frequently <a href=" >been cited</a> by Russian sources as an example of the country’s military power, with the sustainment of an advantage in the field of ICBMs over the Western world reflecting Moscow’s prioritisation of funding for its strategic nuclear forces throughout the post-Soviet era. The system has been <a href=" >described</a> by President Vladimir Putin as impacting targets “like a meteor, like a fireball.” The Russian leader in March 2024 <a href=" >stated</a> regarding the system’s significance for Russia’s ability to penetrate American missile defences: “If you calculate how much [America’s] well-known missile defences cost them, one of the main components for overcoming these missile defences that we have is the Avangard, an intercontinental missile with an intercontinental-range glide unit. So you cannot compare budgets. We’ve basically nullified everything they’ve done, everything they’ve invested in this missile defence system.” He concluded by asserting that these investments by the Pentagon had been left redundant, and were thus highly wasteful.</p>