President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation to the Deputy Head of the Flight Test Center of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), test pilot Andrei Shishov. The award was presented for his outstanding contribution to the testing of the latest models of aviation weapons and confirmation of the combat effectiveness of the Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
According to official materials for the ceremony, in September 2019, Shishov was the first in the world to successfully launch a Kinzhal hypersonic missile at a sea target in the Barents Sea from a modified MiG-31K interceptor. In 2020, he repeated the launch from another carrier - the MiG-31 (product 06), which confirmed the versatility of the complex and its combat readiness.
Earlier, in 2017 and 2018, Shishov conducted key stages of testing of the MiG-31 experimental aircraft (product 08) under the name "Burevestnik". It was his flights that proved the possibility of takeoff, flight and landing with a heavy missile on an external suspension - the technical basis for the integration of the Kinzhal into the combat structure of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
