Russia developing a hypersonic ‘defence-dodging’ NUKE which can travel at 4,000mph – and reach the UK in 23 minutes

WEAPONS experts in Russia are close to launching HYPERSONIC nukes which can travel at continuous speeds of nearly 4,000mph and reach the UK in 23 minutes.

The country's Tactical Missiles Corporation believes the weapon will be so fast it will be virtually impossible for current defence systems to knock it out of the skies.

It would also cover the 1,550 miles from Moscow to London in just 23 minutes- travelling at five times the speed of sound.

Viktor Litovkin, a military expert for the TASS news agency, said some elements of Russian missile systems can already develop amazing speeds as they approach their targets.

“These are warheads from the Yars and Rubezh long-range missile systems, which in the final stretch of their flight start manoeuvring at a hypersonic speed to overcome the enemy’s missile defence system," he explained.

But at the moment, Russia does not have a long-range missile which can maintain 4,000mph speed throughout its attack making them easy targets mid flight.

The technical knowledge for hypersonic weapons dates back to Soviet times.

However, after the breakup of the USSR all research was abandoned in the 1990s and money for developing the new weapon only began to be allocated again a couple of years ago.

Since then it's believed - with the help of modern technology  - the scientists have solved many of the problems their counterparts struggled with during the Cold War.

Not surprisingly, the Americans are also working on hypersonic weapons.

The US has created the Х-51 Waverider spacecraft, which managed to maintain a speed of 3,883 mph for just four minutes.

However, those were one-off tests, without a warhead and a guidance system.

President Vladimir Putin has pledged billions to ensure his country has the best equipped military on the planet.

Just last month, we told how Russia's new nuclear missile the “Satan 2” was unveiled amid reports it could “wipe out France and Texas” and “destroy an area the size of England and Wales twice over”.