Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the country's first Avangard hypersonic missiles have been put into service, an official statement said.
Russian officials say the missile is highly manoeuvrable and reached the speed of Mach 27, or roughly 33,000 kilometres (20,500 miles) per hour, during tests.
Mach 1 is a unit of measurement equivalent to the speed of sound.
"The first missile regiment equipped with latest strategic missiles with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered service at 10 am Moscow time on December 27", the defence ministry said, according to Russian news agencies.
No other details were immediately provided but defence officials have said that the first Avangard regiment is based in the Orenburg region in the Urals.
A defence ministry spokesman declined immediate comment.
Moscow has said it showed US arms inspectors the Avangard missiles in November.
Putin unveiled images of the new weapon during his state of the nation address in 2018, saying it would defeat all existing missile defence systems.
Russia has boasted of developing a number of "invincible" weapons that surpass existing systems and include Sarmat intercontinental missiles and Burevestnik cruise missiles.
This week Putin said that Russia was no longer playing a game of catch-up with the West on weapons development.
"This is a unique situation in our modern history: they are playing catch-up with us," he said.
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Lockheed Martin's precision strike missile successful in first flight test
Dallas TX (SPX) Dec 12, 2019
Lockheed Martin has tested its next-generation long-range missile designed for the U.S. Army's Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) program at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. All test objectives were achieved. During the flight test, the PrSM was fired from Lockheed Martin's High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher and flew approximately 240 kilometers to the target area. "Today's success validates all of the hard work our PrSM team has put into the design and development of ... read more
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