Daily SumUp

On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin launched a nuclear submarine with Zircon hypersonic missiles that can travel at speeds up to several times faster than sound.

According to Russian news agencies citing a video from the Arctic port Murmansk Putin ordered the launch of the vessel named Perm, after a Urals city, with the following order: "I herewith authorise!"

Citing documents related to the launch, the Russian agencies said that the Perm was the first nuclear submarine equipped with Zircon as a standard.

Zircon missiles are very hard to defend because of their range (900 km or 560 miles).

The Perm submarine is the sixth in the Russian Yasen class and Yasen M class built by Sevmash near Murmansk.

According to the Russian news agency, the vessel's construction differed slightly compared to earlier models of the same class.