Published on Mar 26, 2018

Russia will apparently use surplus UR-100UTTKh (NATO: SS-19 Stiletto) and the RS-28 Sarmat liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as the launch vehicle for its Avangard hypersonic boost-glide weapon.

The new weapons will initially be deployed onboard UR-100UTTKn missiles that were returned from Ukraine after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Once the Sarmat is ready for operations, the Avangard will be deployed on that 200-ton missile also.


“In the early 2000s, about 30 UR-100N UTTKh liquid-propellant missiles were delivered from Ukraine for the ‘gas debt,’” a Russian defense industry source told the Moscow-based TASS news agency. “After the disintegration of the USSR, they were kept at warehouses in their unfueled condition, i.e. they were actually new and capable of going on combat duty to serve for several dozen years. A part of these missiles will become the carriers of the first series of hypersonic glide vehicles in the next few years."