Posted: 08/12/2021 / 12:50 PM CDTUpdated: 8/12/2021 / 12:50 p.m. CDT
MOSCOW (AP) – A court in Moscow on Thursday ordered a specialist in hypersonic technologies to be held in prison for high treason, most recently in a series of espionage cases against Russian scientists.
The Lefortovo District Court ruled in a closed-door hearing that Alexander Kuranov, director general and chief designer of the St. Petersburg-based Hypersonic Systems Research Institute, should remain in custody for two months. The materials in the case were kept secret, but according to Russian media reports, Kuranov was charged with disclosing sensitive information to representatives of unspecified foreign countries.
Kuranov’s Institute website states that it was working on the concept of the Ajax hypersonic vehicle, a project first proposed by Soviet engineer Vladimir Freghstadt in the late 1980s. Instead of protecting a vehicle flying at hypersonic speeds from the heat it generates, Freghstadt suggested assimilating the heat to increase energy resources.
It is unclear whether the Freiburg concept has developed in practice since its inception.
The website of Kuranov’s Institute also contained the program of an international workshop on thermochemical processes in plasma aerodynamics, held last month in St. Petersburg.
Russia prides itself on being the only country that has commissioned hypersonic missiles – that are more than five times faster than sound. Its development came when Moscow’s relations with the West reached a low point after the Cold War after Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
Among the new weapons is the Avangard hypersonic glider, which Russian officials say can fly 27 times faster than sound and perform sharp maneuvers on its way to the target to avoid the anti-missile shield.
Avangard was fitted with existing Soviet-built ICBMs in lieu of older-type warheads, and the first unit armed with the Avangard entered service in December 2019.
Another hypersonic weapon, the Kinzhal, which was commissioned to arm Russian fighter jets, has a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (about 1,250 miles) and, according to Russian authorities, flies at 10 times the speed of sound.
And before the year is out, the Russian Navy is slated to complete tests of the Tsirkon hypersonic missile, which will equip cruisers, frigates and submarines. Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was able to fly at nine times the speed of sound and had a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).
Russian officials have alleged that Western intelligence agencies have redoubled their efforts to obtain information about the country’s new technologies. In recent years, several scientists, including those involved in studies of hypersonic technologies, have been accused of divulging classified information to foreign powers.
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