Head of Russian lab supporting hypersonic missile program held for treason

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The director of a Russian laboratory working on hypersonic missiles, a weapon that President Vladimir Putin says has a strategic advantage for Russia, has been arrested on suspicion of treason, state news agency TASS said on Friday.

Hypersonic missiles can travel at up to nine times the speed of sound, and Putin has said the Russians are unmatched and will be deployed with the fleet in the next few months.

Andrey Shiplyuk heads the Hypersonic Laboratory at the Novosibirsk Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and in recent years has coordinated research in support of the development of hypersonic missile systems, according to the institute’s website.

Last month, TASS reported that another senior scientist at Shiplyuk’s institute, located in the Soviet-era Akademgorodok science park in Novosibirsk, about 2,800 km (1,750 miles) east of Moscow, had also been arrested.

It cited a source close to the FSB intelligence agency’s investigation as saying Maslov was suspected of leaking state secrets about hypersonic technology.

TASS on Friday quoted Shiplyuk’s colleagues as saying that the institute had been raided, and an unidentified source also reported that Shiplyuk had been transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.

The Ministry of Defense said in May it had successfully fired a hypersonic Zircon missile to a range of about 1,000 km (625 miles), and days later the commander of the Northern Fleet said the system would be deployed on a new frigate before the end of the year .

A number of Russian scientists have been charged in recent years with treason, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, for allegedly passing sensitive material to foreigners. Kremlin critics say the arrests often stem from unwarranted paranoia.

Dmitry Kolker, a doctor of physics and mathematics at Novosibirsk State University specializing in lasers, died of pancreatic cancer last month, shortly after he was detained on suspicion of collaborating with Chinese security services.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey)