During a ministerial meeting on November 30, defense minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia needed to further develop and deploy advanced, next-generation weapons in its ongoing war with Ukraine. 

“It is necessary to continue the modernization and creation of advanced systems with their subsequent use in the course of a special military operation,” said Shoigu. 

Shoigu did not elaborate on what new weapons he was referring to or how they might be employed by Russia’s military forces. 

However, previous comments by the former Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Russia’s weapons industries, Yury Borisov, may offer some clues on Shoigu’s “advanced systems.” 

“The main priorities will be in such areas as the development of high-precision weapons, including hypersonic weapons, the introduction of robotic systems, [and] weapons based on new physical principles,” Borisov told Interfax-AVN, when discussing Moscow’s “State Armaments Program 2024-2033.” 

Borisov’s mention of developing “weapons based on new physical principles” will raise more than a few eyebrows.  

Perhaps more intriguing is the notion that developing weapons based on the frontiers of physics appears, at least in part, to stem from an oddly matter-of-fact belief by a retired Russian Major General and nuclear weapons expert in the existence of “unidentified flying objects” or UFOs. 

Interestingly enough, the former director of science and technology for the entire US Intelligence Community says there could be some merit to this seemingly taboo idea.

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