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| Illustration Russia Zircon Hypersonic Missile |
International Military - Russia has the highly advanced Zircon hypersonic missile in service. As is known, Zircon was first delivered to the Russian Navy at the end of 2019. Since then, Zircon has equipped warships, destroyers, and stealth corvettes.
Call it the Cold War-era Udaloy Class and the modernized Gremyashchiy Class. The existence of the Zircon in Russian service cannot be underestimated. The reason is, Zircon is claimed to be superior to the P-800 which is currently claimed to be very sophisticated. So sophisticated, this device is suspected of violating the previous Intermediate Range Nuclear Forced agreement.
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Quoted from Military Watch Magazine, this agreement prevents Russia and the United States from deploying land-based tactical missile systems with a range exceeding 500 km. Of course this is inversely proportional to the Zircon which has almost double the range. Not without reason, Zircon is intended to protect the beach.
As is known, Russia's Bastion Coast is currently still using the P-800. However, the P-800 was much slower and shorter ranged. Compared to the Zircon which has Mach 9, the P-800 only has Mach 3.
Quoted from Reuters, Russia's defense ministry said that it had successfully conducted a test-firing of a Zircon cruise missile. The test fire was carried out from a ship in the Barents Sea to a target about 1,000 km (625 miles) away in the White Sea.
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Not only that, Zircon is also projected to be operational by the end of 2022. As quoted from TASS, Zircon is being developed at NPO Mashinostroyeniya in the city of Reutov near Moscow.
The source further highlighted that the missile would be capable of striking ground targets. The Zircon would provide Russia with an asymmetrical means of denying the enemy access to large areas of the sea or ocean. His speed was even considered enough to knock out a larger warship.
This can be done with just one well-placed impact because the amount of kinetic energy imparted doesn't even include the destructive power of the warhead. Zircon has the potential to form a core part of Russia's future defenses.
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With the ability to deploy from a low-cost mobile launch vehicle and strike targets very far and fast, it allows it to complement the short-range Iskander ballistic missiles that Russia currently relies heavily on.