Russia has revealed the devastating destructive power of a new cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The Black Sea Fleet’s Vyshny Volochek, a guided missile corvette ship, carried out a test of the new ‘high precision’ Kalibr missile.
A sabre-rattling video of the test shows a Kalibr missile blasting into the air and then blowing a target resembling a ship to smithereens.
The footage suggests Kalibr is designed to be used during conflicts with other navies.
However, if it was armed with nuclear warheads it could easily wipe out a few cities from a great distance.
Kalibr has a range of about 1,200 miles.
In a statement, the Russia defence ministry said: ‘In accordance with planned naval drills of the Black Sea Fleet, the Vyshny Volochek guided missile corvette has for the first time fired high precision Kalibr missiles at a target in the Black Sea.
‘Unmanned aerial vehicles registered successfully striking the target – a large shield imitating an ‘enemy’ ship at a distance of around 40 nautical miles.’
The Russian Defence Ministry recently published a video of its new 6-tonne drone taking to the skies for its maiden flight.
Boasting that the Altius-U drone can stay up in the air ‘for up to 24 hours’, Russia says the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) will undertake a wide variety of reconnaissance missions.
For the maiden flight, the drone flew for a total of 30 minutes at an altitude of 800 metres and landed safely afterwards.
The Defense Ministry posted the video of the reconnaissance drone’s debut flight in its YouTube page. The video shows the drone speeding up along the runway of a military aerodrome and making its flight.
The video also shows the drone performing manoeuvres in the air with the non-retracted landing gear and making a landing.
‘The system is capable of accomplishing a whole range of reconnaissance assignments, employing optical, radio-technical and radar equipment and staying in the air for over 24 hours. The drone weighs about 6 tonnes,’ the ministry said in a statement.
Earlier this month, news emerged that the Russian government is working on a new stealth bomber as well.
The plane is called the PAK DA and will be tested in the coming years before being rolled out as soon as 2025, the Russian news agency TASS announced.