Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the impending deployment Wednesday of a new hypersonic nuclear-capable missile system that he claims will evade American defenses worldwide, dramatically upping the ante of a growing high-tech arms race with Washington.

Moscow has worked for years on the system known as “Avangard,” which is capable of striking targets thousands of miles away, and Mr. Putin boasted that the Russian military has now successfully tested the system with missiles that fly at 20 times the speed of sound — about a mile per second — to render all current missile defense systems obsolete.

"On my instructions the industrial enterprises and the Defense Ministry have prepared for and carried out the final test of this system," Putin said. "The test was completely successful: all technical parameters were verified."

Russia’s hypersonic missile system will enter service in the Armed Forces next year, Vladimir Putin told the government on Wednesday, stressing that this is a new type of strategic weapons.

"Starting from next year, in 2019, a new intercontinental strategic system Avangard will enter service in the Russian army and the first regiment in the Strategic Missile Troops will be deployed," Putin said.