Retired Counter Admiral Vsevolov Khmyrov said targets on US territory fell well within the range of Russian ships and submarines armed with the deady new Tsircon hypersonic missiles. Admiral Khmyrov said after withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the US will control systems that they may decide to deploy in Europe “from command centres on the territory of the American continent”.
He said Russia’s Tsircon missiles would not only create a counterweight to missiles deployed in Europe “but will also ensure the capability to strike key control systems – command centres”.
He said: “If a submarine or military ship with Tsircon missiles onboard is located in 500 kilometres from the coast, then missiles will be capable of reaching coastal targets at the depth of at least 500 kilometre.
“Such a hypersonic system like Tsircon practically breaks through any missile defence system.
“The number of military ships and submarines with Tsircon missiles onboard on combat duty in West Atlantic and East Pacific may stand at two to three ships on each direction with about 40 missiles onboard.”
The chilling warning came just a day after Vladimir Putin warned Moscow would consider tit-for-tat and asymmetric measures if the US deployed intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles to Europe.
The Russian President said: “I’ve already said and I want to repeat – and this is vital – to repeat this specifically, that Russia is not planning to be the first to deploy these missiles to Europe.
“If they are indeed manufactured and sent to the European continent, and the US does have these plans, anyway, we haven’t heard other statements, this will sharply deteriorate international security and create serious threats to Russia since it takes up to 10-12 minutes for certain types of these missiles to fly to Moscow.
“This is a very serious danger to us. In this case, we will be forced, and I want to stress this, we will be forced to envisage tit-for-tat and asymmetric measures.”
He vowed an immediate response if any threat against becomes realistic and said Russia will point weapons at missile bases in Europe and and in the US itself.
Mr Putin said: “Even now, I will say it directly and explicitly so that no one could reproach us about anything and so that everyone could understand what we are talking about here.
“Russia will be forced to create and deploy those types of weapons, which could be used not only against those regions from where we will face a direct threat, but also against those regions, hosting the centres, where decisions are taken on using those missile systems threatening us.”