A hypersonic target missile designed for testing of advanced weapons is being developed in Russia, director general of Russian scientific and production enterprise NPO Molniya, Olga Sokolova, told Sputnik.

“We are currently carrying out research and development work on this missile, which should be completed in 2019 with further putting into service and supply to the Defense Ministry under new contracts. This is a hypersonic target missile that is designed to test new weapons,” Sokolova said.

In addition, she added that, starting from the next year, a small parachute target will be developed, and within two years after the start, this work should be commissioned.

“It is designed to train fighter and assault pilots, as well as for anti-aircraft artillery. It is launched from the ground, simulates a torch from the nozzles of anaircraft, and its cost is relatively small,” Sokolova said.

She also said a supercomputer for designing advanced domestic weapons was being developed in Russia.

In March 2018, Russia said it has successfully test-fired a “hypersonic” missile, which President Vladimir Putin claimed flies 10 times faster than the speed of sound.

The Kinzhal (Dagger) missile was launched from a MiG-31 aircraft that took off from an airfield in Russia’s Southern Military District, the Defense Ministry said on March 11.

Video footage released by the ministry showed two pilots gearing up for a flight and then running toward a jet carrying a large missile under its fuselage. The video then showed a missile detaching from the airborne plane and gliding across the sky.

“The launch went according to plan, the hypersonic missile hit its target on a testing ground,” the Russian Defense Ministry then said.

The Kinzhal missile was one of an array of new weapons Putin unveiled in his state-of-the-nation address on March 1.

The missile can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads at a range of more than 2,000 kilometers, the Russian president said, contending that it can overcome air-defense systems.