The frigate named the Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov in 2019. Mr. Putin said the frigate was equipped with hypersonic weapons.Credit…Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press
President Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday sent a frigate on a mission to the Atlantic Ocean that he said was equipped with hypersonic weapons, in a show of bullishness over Russia’s defense capabilities despite multiple recent setbacks in its war in Ukraine. However, doubts persist about whether Russia can actually deploy the vaunted technology.
Hypersonic weapons are defined as long-range, highly maneuverable munitions capable of reaching speeds of at least Mach 5 — five times the speed of sound, or more than a mile a second — enabling them to evade traditional air defense systems.
Russia, China and the United States are in a race to develop and deploy them, and other countries are also working on the technology, including Australia, Brazil,…
