Russia has deployed its first nuclear-capable missile that military officials claim can fly at 27 times the speed of sound, winning a race against the US to develop hypersonic weapons.

President Vladimir Putin boasted that the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle means Russia now leads the world in engineering an entire new class of weapons.

The intercontinental weapon, which became operational on Friday, was a technological breakthrough comparable to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite, Mr Putin said.

He claimed the missile can withstand temperatures of up to 2,000C (3,632F) resulting from a flight through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.

It is launched on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile, but unlike a regular missile warhead that follows a predictable path, it can make sharp manoeuvres in the atmosphere, making it much harder to intercept.

Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Show all 8 1 /8 Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry US astronaut Alan B Shepard Jr sitting in his Freedom 7 Mercury capsule, ready for launch on 5 May 1961. Just 23 days earlier, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first man in space. After several delays and more than four hours in the capsule, Shepard was ready to go, and he famously urged mission controllers to “fix your little problem and light this candle”. Pictures by Nasa/EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Wernher von Braun (centre) explains the Saturn rocket system to President John F Kennedy at Launch Complex 37 while the president tours the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, on 16 November 1963 Nasa/EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry A back-up copy of the first Russian Sputnik (satellite, right), and a small replica of the second Russian satellite displayed in a small museum in the cosmonaut training centre in Star City outside Moscow. The second satellite was launched just a month later on 3 November 1957 with dog Laika on board. EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Jet propulsion laboratory director William Pickering (left), Dr James Van Allen (centre), and Dr Wernher von Braun (right) hold up a model of the first US satellite Explorer 1, which successfully launched on 31 January 1958 Nasa/EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry President Kennedy speaks to the nation at the joint session of congress, in Washington, DC, on 25 May 1961, where he said: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” Nasa/EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry A visitor passes in front of a picture of Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut of the USSR, inside the Vostok 1 command capsule on display at the exhibition “The way of Gagarin – achievement of Russian manned cosmonautics” in Moscow. On 12 April 1961, Gagarin performed a space flight aboard the Vostok-1 spacecraft, orbiting Earth in 108 minutes and landing safely near Smelovka village in the Saratov region's Ternovsky district. EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry A model of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, hangs in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Full length image of US astronaut Alan B Shepard Jr Nasa/EPA

Mr Putin has said Russia had to develop the Avangard and other prospective weapons systems because of US efforts to develop a missile defence system. The Avangard can hit almost any point in the world and evade a US-built missile shield, he claimed.

Some western experts have questioned how advanced some of the weapons programmes are.

Earlier this week, the Russian leader stressed that Russia was the only country armed with hypersonic weapons, saying that for the first time his country was leading the world in developing a new class of weapons, unlike in the past when it was catching up with the US.

“It heads to target like a meteorite, like a fireball,” he said last year in his state-of-the-nation address.

The Russian military previously had commissioned another hypersonic weapon of a smaller range.

The US Pentagon also has been working on hypersonic weapons in recent years, and in August defense secretary Mark Esper said he believed it was a matter of “a couple of years” before the US had one.

China has already tested its own hypersonic glide vehicle, believed to be capable of travelling at least five times the speed of sound.

US officials have talked about putting a layer of sensors in space to more quickly detect enemy missiles, particularly the hypersonic weapons.