Avangard (hypersonic glide vehicle)

Avangard Авангард
The UR-100UTTKh ICBM launched from the Dombarovsky Air Base carrying the Avangard
Type	Hypersonic glide vehicle
Place of origin	Russia
Service history
In service	2019–present
Used by	Strategic Rocket Forces
Production history
Designer	Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology
Manufacturer	Votkinsk Machine Building Plant
Produced	2018–present
Specifications
Mass	~2 tonnes (4,400 lb)
Length	5.4 m
Blast yield	unknown
Launch platform	ICBM R-36M2, RS-28, UR-100

The Avangard (Russian: Авангард, "Vanguard"; previously known as Objekt 4202, Yu-71 and Yu-74) is a Russian hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV). It can be carried as a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) payload of heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), such as the UR-100UTTKh, R-36M2 and RS-28 Sarmat. It can deliver both nuclear and conventional payloads. The Avangard is reportedly capable of travelling at re-entry speeds (over Mach 27 and close to Mach 30).

The Avangard is one of the six new Russian strategic weapons unveiled by Russian president Vladimir Putin on 1 March 2018.

History

File:Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle.webm According to Vladimir Putin, the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty in 2002 forced Russia to start developing hypersonic weapons: "We had to create these [hypersonic] weapons in response to the US deployment of a strategic missile defense system, which in the future would be capable of virtually neutralizing, zeroing out all our nuclear potential". In 2007, when asked about U.S. plans to deploy ballistic missile defenses in Europe, Putin mentioned that Russia was developing “strategic weapons systems of a completely different type that will fly at hypersonic speed and will be able to change trajectory both in terms of altitude and direction".

In October 2016, a flight test was carried out using a R-36M2 heavy ICBM launched from Dombarovsky Air Base, reportedly successfully hitting a target at the Kura Missile Test Range. This was reportedly the first fully successful test of the glide vehicle.

On 1 March 2018, Russian president Vladimir Putin in his presidential address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow announced that testing of the weapon is now complete and that it has entered serial production. This was further confirmed by the commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces, Colonel General Sergey Karakayev.

On 19 September 2020, Herbert Yefremov, an Advisor for Science at the NPO Mashinostroyenia, was awarded the Order of St. Andrew for his contributions to the development of Avangard.

Design

HGVs differ from traditional ballistic missile warheads by virtue of their ability to maneuver and operate at lower altitudes. The combination of maneuverability and high speed poses significant challenges for conventional missile defense. With the advantage again swinging toward attack, R. Jeffrey Smith speculates that weapons of this type will reignite the kind of arms race that dominated the Cold War era.

According to open-source analysis by Janes Information Services, Avangard is a pure glide vehicle without an independent propulsion system. When approaching a target, the glider supposedly is capable of sharp high speed horizontal and vertical evasive maneuvers in flight.

The Avangard weighs about 2,000 kg and travels at Mach 20–27, giving it the equivalent of 21 tons of TNT in kinetic energy alone, excluding any explosive warhead.

Operators

Russia

• Strategic Rocket Forces – The Strategic Rocket Forces are the only operator of the Avangard HGV. As of May 2025, 12 Avangard-equipped UR-100N UTTHs are deployed with:
  • 13th Red Banner Rocket Division at Yasny, Orenburg Oblast

See also

• DF-ZF
• Boeing X-51 Waverider
• Prompt Global Strike
• DARPA Falcon Project
• Silbervogel
• Tupolev Tu-130

Further reading

• Andrew Cockburn, "Like a Ball of Fire: Andrew Cockburn on hypersonic weaponry", London Review of Books, vol. 42, no. 5 (5 March 2020), pp. 31–32. "'Welcome to the world of strategic analysis, where we program weapons that don't work to meet threats that don't exist.' This was what Ivan Selin, a senior Pentagon official, used to tell subordinates in the Defence Department in the 1960s." (p. 31.) Cockburn recounts impracticable-weapons projects, including Russia's Avangard "hypersonic glide missile", Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" project, the US's 1951 nuclear-powered-bomber project, and the US's 1950s Dyna-Soar "boost-glide"-weapon project suggested by Walter Dornberger, a favorite of Hitler's who had overseen the V2 rocket program. "[T]he US and Russia have both taken Selin's axiom a step further: they mean to deploy a weapon that doesn't work against a threat that doesn't exist that was in turn developed to counter an equally non-existent threat." (p. 32.)