Putin: "Invulnerable" Nuclear Missile Ready to Deploy
ACOSTA: Tonight, Vladimir Putin is boasting about a significant new advance in Russia's nuclear arsenal. CNN's Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr joins us. And, Barbara, we have been watching this with a lot of interest. Are U.S. military officials worried about this?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, concerned enough to start pouring money into a Pentagon program to try and counter the Russians.</s>STARR (voice-over): U.S. defense officials say, this is the real deal. Russia test-firing its new high speed hypersonic missile, a missile that the U.S. military currently cannot defend against. Russian President Vladimir Putin pulling no punches on his intent.</s>VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The new Avangard missile system is invincible against today's and future air and missile defense systems of the potential enemy. This is a big success and a great achievement.</s>COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: If the weapons work as advertised, there is no current defense against them.</s>STARR: The Russian missile has captured the attention of Patrick Shanahan, the deputy defense secretary, who will take over as acting Pentagon chief when Secretary James Mattis leaves next week.</s>PATRICK SHANAHAN, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We have a number of options going on with hypersonic missiles.</s>STARR: Shanahan warns, the U.S. needs to be able to detect the fast flying missile much further away than current radar systems can handle. The U.S. has to detect thousands, if not hundreds of miles away because of its high speed approach. The Pentagon may spend more than $1 billion trying to develop and field its own capabilities. The Russians are making significant, yet unproven, claims about their missiles saying it's capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. It flies up to 20 times faster than the speed of sound. It can adjust altitude and direction to avoid detection. Putin says it's invincible.</s>GENERAL JOHN HYTEN, COMMANDING GENERAL, U.S. STRATEGIC COMMAND: We're going to need a different set of sensors in order to see the hypersonic threats. Our adversaries know that.</s>STARR: The challenges are also political for President Trump, whose relationship with Russian President Putin has been rocky since July's Helsinki summit.</s>LEIGHTON: Putin feels incredibly embolden. Putin believes this is the time to press his advantages. He put his forces in Ukraine, in Eastern Ukraine. He has, of course, taken over Crimea. He is now gaining ground in Syria. This is Russia's time in his view.</s>STARR: The Pentagon feels very strongly right now. He has no choice but to start investing heavily in this kind of technology -- Jim.</s>ACOSTA: All right. Barbara Starr, thank you for that. Just ahead, we're learning more about the death of an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy in U.S. custody as a top Trump official is headed to the border to investigate for herself.