(Reuters) -&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;is in the process of&nbsp;equipping its&nbsp;new&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;submarines&nbsp;with&nbsp;hypersonic&nbsp;Zircon&nbsp;missiles, the head of&nbsp;Russia's largest shipbuilder told the RIA state&nbsp;news agency in an interview published on Monday.
"Multi-purpose&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;submarines&nbsp;of the Yasen-M project will ... be&nbsp;equipped with the Zircon missile system on a regular basis," , Alexei Rakhmanov, chief executive officer of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), told RIA.
"Work in this direction is already underway."
Yasen-class&nbsp;submarines, also known as Project 885M, are&nbsp;nuclear-powered cruise missile&nbsp;submarines, built to replace Soviet-era&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;attack&nbsp;submarines&nbsp;as part of a programme to modernise the army and fleet.
The sea-based Zircon&nbsp;hypersonic&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;have a range of 900 km (560 miles), and can travel at several times the speed of sound, making it difficult to defend against them.
President Vladimir Putin said earlier this year that&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;would start mass supplies of Zircon&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;as part of the country's efforts to boost its&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;forces.
The&nbsp;Russian multi-purposes frigate Admiral Gorshkov, which has tested its strike capabilities in the western Atlantic Ocean earlier this year, has been already&nbsp;equipped with Zircon&nbsp;missiles.
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(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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Russia to equip new nuclear submarines with hypersonic missiles