​Latest hypersonic missile test a wake-up call for the US

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The above video, from the Russian MoD, shows the launch of the Avangard hypersonic missile during its first test.
 
The following is our translation of a Russian expert's opinion on the US wake-up call to Russian hypersonic weapons, with commentary by Vince Dhimos. The reaction of US media and politicians to Putin’s speech before the Federal Assembly was to poo-poo the statements about hypersonic weapons, mocking them as mere cartoons (Putin had in fact illustrated his report on the new arms using cartoons at the time).
 
But the latest test of the Russian nuclear-capable hypersonic Avangard in December of 2018 changed minds in Washington.
 
It is to his credit that CFR president Richard Haass realized the danger of Russian arms even before the test was reported, and wrote, in his paper titled How a World Order Ends, that the “US cannot defeat Russia.” This marked a major turning point for US policy and was the subject of our report The Deep State capitulates to Russia.
 
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"And then they realized that Russia has hypersonic weapons": Satanovsky spoke about the Russian Federation’s cold shower for the United States in Ukraine and Syria
 
January 15, 2019
 
https://rueconomics.ru/372445-i-tut-oni-ponyali-chto-u-rossii-est-giperzvuk-satanovskii-rasskazal-o-kholodnom-dushe-rf-dlya-ssha-po-ukraine-i-sirii    
 
The emergence of hypersonic weapons from Russia was a cold shower for the United States, which realized the risks of provoking a conflict with the Russian Federation in Syria and in Ukraine. This was stated by political scientist Yevgeny Satanovsky.
 
According to the expert, America has recently found out for itself that Russia’s new weapons, like its cooperation with China, are, if not the deadliest, then the biggest threat to the States. Not so long ago in Washington they could not have imagined what danger the United States faces in provoking the Russian Federation in different parts of the globe, but recent events in the military sphere opened the Americans’ eyes.
 
“They, it turns out, didn’t assume that by slapping us with sanctions and giving us “lost years” over the situation with the Crimea, the Crimean Bridge, the Minsk Agreements and Ukraine as a whole, these guys were taking risks, serious risks. However, the Syria outcome had also been unexpected," said Satanovsky.
 
The main issue, the political analyst noted, is the newest weapons of Russia, which President Vladimir Putin described in March in a message to the Federal Assembly. After that, the United States and other Western countries began to argue that Russia allegedly had nothing but “cartoons,” trying to provoke Moscow to show concrete examples. “When you say that we have no cartoons, but technologies, and here are the proofs, you are at the same time blabbing state secrets. This is a primitive and very good move,” the expert explained the US calculation.
 
The last straw for the United States was the test at the end of 2018 of the Avangard hypersonic missile system, which was launched in Kamchatka. This proved to the whole world, including the Americans, that Russia already has a hypersonic weapon in its arsenal, against which the United States is defenceless.
 
"The testing was demonstrated. And it turned out that Russia has hypersonic missiles. And the Chinese are developing them. And America doesn’t have any. And it served as a cold shower of the kind that Americans have not received for a long time," said Satanovsky on the air on Vesti."
 
Earlier, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu called the rearmament of the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) one of the priorities of the military department for 2019. The priority of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation is the formation of missile regiments equipped with the Avangard complexes, as well as the equipping of the strategic weapons systems of Russia in the air and at sea with advanced weapons.
 
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