Russia has reportedly tested a secret nuclear air-to-air missile. Here's what we know
Russia has reportedly developed and deployed a new
air-to-air missile
capable of carrying a nuclear warhead — a move that's drawing growing attention from Western defense analysts. According to a recent assessment by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), this new capability is part of a broader expansion of Russia's nuclear arsenal.
As reported by BulgarianMilitary.com, the nuclear-capable missile is believed to be a variant of the R-37M — a long-range air-to-air missile known to NATO as the AA-13 'Axehead.' Developed by the Vympel Design Bureau, the R-37M is already a cornerstone of the Russian Aerospace Forces' (VKS) aerial combat capabilities.
The R-37M boasts a range exceeding 300 kilometers and travels at hypersonic speeds surpassing Mach 6, making it one of the fastest and longest-range air-to-air missiles in active service. It uses an active radar homing system, with inertial navigation and mid-course updates, allowing it to track and destroy fast-moving targets including fighter jets, bombers, and airborne early warning aircraft (AWACS).
This missile is typically launched from high-performance Russian aircraft such as:
Mikoyan MiG-31BM 'Foxhound' – a long-range interceptor designed for high-speed engagements
Live Events
Sukhoi Su-35S 'Flanker-E' – a multirole fighter with the advanced Irbis-E radar
Sukhoi Su-57 'Felon' – Russia's fifth-generation stealth fighter (though integration with this platform remains unconfirmed)
The DIA's 2025 Worldwide Threat Assessment earlier reportedly noted that 'Russia is expanding its nuclear forces by adding new capabilities, including nuclear air-to-air missiles.' While the report does not name specific systems, defense analysts speculate it likely refers to a nuclear-armed variant of the R-37M, based on recent trends and platform compatibility.
In August 2024, Russia's Ministry of Defense released footage showing
MiG-31BM interceptors
being armed with long-range air-to-air missiles during a non-strategic nuclear weapons exercise. The visuals featured R-33 missiles (NATO: AA-9 'Amos'), another older but still potent missile system.
Introduced in 1981, the R-33 was developed to target high-value aircraft like the SR-71 Blackbird and B-52 Stratofortress. It has a range of around 120 km, uses semi-active radar homing (SARH), and can hit targets flying up to 3,000 km/h. Supported by the Zaslon phased-array radar, it could track multiple targets and guide up to six missiles simultaneously — a major Cold War-era innovation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
28 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the US, charged with transporting people in the country illegally
WASHINGTON — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador became a political flashpoint in the Trump administration's stepped-up immigration enforcement, was returned to the United States on Friday to face criminal charges related to what the Trump administration said was a massive human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally. His abrupt release from El Salvador closes one chapter and opens another in a saga that yielded a remarkable, months-long standoff between Trump officials and the courts over a deportation that officials initially acknowledged was done in error but then continued to stand behind in apparent defiance of orders by judges to facilitate his return to the U.S. The development occurred after U.S. officials presented El Salvador President Nayib Bukele with an arrest warrant for federal charges in Tennessee accusing Abrego Garcia of playing a key role in smuggling immigrants into the country for money. He is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country of El Salvador at the conclusion of the case, officials said Friday. 'This is what American justice looks like,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. A court appearance in Nashville was set for Friday. Democrats and immigrant rights group had pressed for Abrego Garcia's release, with several lawmakers — including Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia had lived for years — even traveling to El Salvador to visit him. A federal judge had ordered him to be returned in April and the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal by directing the government to work to bring him back. But the news that Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs, was being brought back for the purpose of prosecution was greeted with dismay by his lawyers. 'The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order. Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they're bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along,' said one of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. The indictment, filed last month and unsealed Friday, lays out a string of allegations that date back to 2016 but are only being disclosed now, nearly three months after Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported and following the Trump administration's repeated claims that he is a criminal. It accuses him of smuggling throughout the U.S. thousands of people living in the country illegally, including members of the violent MS-13 gang, from Central America and abusing women he was transporting. A co-conspirator also alleged that he participated in the killing of a gang member's mother in El Salvador, prosecutors wrote in papers urging the judge to keep him behind bars while he awaits trial. The indictment does not charge him in connection with that allegation. 'Later, as part of his immigration proceedings in the United States, the defendant claimed he could not return to El Salvador because he was in fear of retribution from the 18th Street gang,' the detention memo states. 'While partially true — the defendant, according to the information received by the Government, was in fear of retaliation by the 18th Street gang — the underlying reason for the retaliation was the defendant's own actions in participating in the murder of a rival 18th Street gang member's mother," prosecutors wrote. The charges stem from a 2022 vehicle stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected him of human trafficking. A report released by the Department of Homeland Security in April states that none of the people in the vehicle had luggage, while they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime, while the officers allowed him to drive on with only a warning about an expired driver's license, according to the DHS report. The report said he was traveling from Texas to Maryland, via Missouri, to bring in people to perform construction work. In response to the report's release in April, Abrego Garcia's wife said in a statement that he sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites, 'so it's entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle. He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing.' Abrego Garcia's background and personal life have been a source of dispute and contested facts. Immigrant rights advocates have cast his arrest as emblematic of an administration whose deportation policy is haphazard and error-prone, while Trump officials have pointed to prior interactions with police and described him as a gang member who fits the mold they are determined to expel from the country. Abrego Garcia lived in the U.S. for roughly 14 years, during which he worked construction, got married and was raising three children with disabilities, according to court records. Trump administration officials said he was deported based on a 2019 accusation from Maryland police that he was an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia denied the allegation and was never charged with a crime, his attorneys said. A U.S. immigration judge subsequently shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs. The Trump administration deported him there in March, later describing the mistake as 'an administrative error' but insisting he was in MS-13. Abrego Garcia's return comes days after the Trump administration complied with a court order to return a Guatemalan man deported to Mexico despite his fears of being harmed there. The man, identified in court papers as O.C.G, was the first person known to have been returned to U.S. custody after deportation since the start of President Donald Trump's second term.
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
Japan's Moon landing dream crashes, again
Japan's space programme faces a second fatal loss in two years as ispace's Resilience spacecraft crashed on the Moon during its highly-anticipated landing attempt on Friday, June 6, 2025. The spacecraft was targeting to land on the Moon's Sea of Cold in the Northern Hemisphere when Mission Control in Tokyo lost communications and telemetry with the spacecraft. ispace stated that the lander successfully began its descent phase from an altitude of 100 kilometres and all was well until the 20 kilometres mark above the Moon. The spacecraft successfully fired its engine at 20 kilometres altitude to begin deceleration. The engineers later confirmed that the laser rangefinder used to measure the distance to the lunar surface experienced delays in obtaining valid measurement values. As a result, the lander was unable to decelerate sufficiently to reach the required speed for the planned lunar landing and suffered a hard landing. In 2023, the company's first spacecraft, Hakuto-R, crashed with the Rashid rover. The spacecraft experienced an unexpected acceleration on its way down to the surface.
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Mistakenly deported man Abrego Garcia on way to US to face charges, source says
-Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador by the Trump administration, is on his way back to the U.S. to face criminal charges, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. Abrego Garcia will face charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S., ABC reported earlier. The report said the charges had been filed under seal in Tennessee last month, well after Abrego Garcia's March 15 deportation. His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador, despite an immigration judge's 2019 order granting him protection from deportation to El Salvador after finding he was likely to be persecuted by gangs if returned there, court records show. Critics of President Donald Trump pointed to the erroneous deportation as an example of the excesses of the Republican president's aggressive approach to stepping up deportations. Officials countered by alleging that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. His lawyers have denied that Abrego Garcia was a member of the gang and said he had not been charged with or convicted of any crime. His case has also become a flash point for escalating tensions between the executive branch and the judiciary, which has ruled against a number of Trump's policies. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying the government had cited no basis for what she called his "warrantless arrest." U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has since opened a probe into what, if anything, the Trump administration has done to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information.
