Today I'm gonna take you to see How Powerful is  Russia Zircon anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile. 

The 3M22 Tsirkon or Zircon is a scramjet-powered  maneuvering hypersonic cruise missile being  

developed by Russia. The missile can develop a  speed of Mach 9 and fly at an altitude of 30-40 km  

where the range and speed increase  as air resistance is smaller.  

Experts estimate the payload at 300-400 kg and  the missile length at 8-10 meters. For comparison  

the Tomahawk cruise missiles carried by U.S. Navy  and Royal Navy submarines fly at around Mach 0.75. 

The new weapon is a natural development  of Russia's experience with cruise missile  

submarines. For much of the Cold War the  missiles carried by Russian submarines were  

focused on hitting ships at sea, particularly  the U.S. Navy's formidable aircraft carriers.  

It was not until the conflict in Syria that Russia  began using submarine-launched cruise missiles  

in a similar way to the U.S. Navy's Tomahawk  missile; as a long-range surgical strike weapon. 

Most of the submarine-launched cruise missiles  fired at Syria have been subsonic Kalibr type  

weapons launched from smaller Kilo class  diesel-electric submarines. The Zircon  

will be a significant advancement over Kalibr. Which makes it a very dangerous weapon, indeed. 

Zircon anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile is  designed to attack ships at sea and targets on  

land at speeds of up to Mach 9, giving enemy  missile defenses little time to prepare. 

Zircon is designed to use speed to penetrate  enemy air defense systems. Depending on the  

missile's flight profile a U.S. Navy carrier  battle group defended by the Aegis Combat System  

would have between two minutes and 20 seconds  to detect, track, and shoot down the missile. 

Russian sources state that Zircon's  maximum altitude is 100,000 to  

130,000 feet. Reaching max altitude, Zircon could  then fly straight at its target in a shallow dive.  

At more than six thousand miles an hour, Zircon  files a hundred miles in less than one minute.  

The powerful SPY-1 radar on U.S. cruisers and  destroyers can detect an incoming missile at  

192 miles, giving a U.S. carrier strike  force less than two minutes to detect,  

track, and shoot down an incoming Zircon missile. If on the other hand Zircon enters a steep dive  

and then flies low like other cruise missiles,  it could prove unstoppable to many navies.  

Assuming Zircon flies at an altitude of 200  feet, about typical for a cruise missile,  

a surface ship will detect Zircon at a distance  of just 34 miles. In that scenario, the targeted  

ship has less than twenty seconds to down the  incoming Zircon missile. That's hardly enough  

time for the defending ship commander to process  what is happening, let alone launch missiles  

to shoot the incoming hypersonic missile down. Zircon is one of six new weapons systems unveiled  

by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a  state of the nation speech. In addition to Zircon,  

Putin says Russia is working to deploy the  Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile,  

Avangard strategic hypersonic weapon,  Kinzhal tactical hypersonic weapon,  

Poseidon nuclear-armed long range torpedo, and  Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile. 

The Zircon is designed and developed  by NPO Mashinostroyeniya as a further  

development of its HELA (Hypersonic  Experimental Flying Vehicle) concept  

that was on display at the 1995 MAKS Air Show. Zircon has been in development for several years,  

and its existence was confirmed in February  2019 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

Putin stated the missile was capable of Mach  9 flight and had a range of 1,000 kilometers  

(620 miles) and the missile will be armed  with a conventional or nuclear warhead. 

According to the head of Russia's United  Shipbuilding Corporation it will be possible  

to deploy Zircon on all future Russian Navy  warships. The new missile will breathe new life  

into the Russian Navy, many of whose ships  were built before the end of the Cold War. 

Zircon missiles are launched from the universal  ship firing complex 3S-14 vertical launching  

system. These launchers, in particular,  are equipped on Project 22350 frigates,  

Project 20380 corvettes and  Yasen-class cruise missile submarines. 

The Admiral Gorshkov was chosen for Tsirkon trials  from the very beginning. Admiral Gorshkov is an  

Admiral Gorshkov class frigate of the Russian  Navy and the lead ship of the class. The vessel  

was laid down on 1 February 2006, launched on  29 October 2010 and commissioned on 28 July 2018  

with Russia's Northern Fleet. The ship is named  after Hero of the Soviet Union Sergey Gorshkov. 

Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates displace 4,500  tonnes and can develop a speed of 29 knots.  

They are armed with P-800 Oniks and Kalibr  anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles,  

and the Poliment-Redut air defense missile system. With the addition of Zircon missiles, analysts say  

Gorshkov-class frigates will boast more firepower  than America's cruisers and heavy destroyers. 

According to the TASS news agency,  the Russian Navy's lead Project  

22350 frigate Admiral Gorshkov quietly departed  Belomorsky Naval Base on July 19, 2020 to conduct  

the second test firing of the Zircon hypersonic  missile. The second test firing was originally  

scheduled earlier but the coronavirus  pandemic reportedly delayed the launch. 

The first test firing of the Zircon hypersonic  missile from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate  

was conducted earlier this year. The missile was  fired against a ground target in the Northern Ural  

mountain range while the ship was in the Barents  Sea, a distance reportedly exceeding 500 km. 

The Kazan submarine was laid down on  July 24, 2009 and launched in 2017.  

It is expected to join the Russian Navy in late  2020 to serve in the Northern Fleet. The main  

weapon of the Project 885/885M submarines  are Kalibr and/or Oniks cruise missiles. 

Russia is planning a fleet of 8 sister-ships  of Kazan to carry zircon and these will be  

joined by future attack submarines which will  also be designed to carry the new missile.  

My analysis of Russian submarine  building programs suggests that  

by 2030 Russia may field 8 submarines  with Zircon missiles, and 17 by 2040. 

Zircon is not the only ground-breaking  weapon being developed by Russia. It is  

also developing the Burevestnik nuclear-powered  cruise missile with virtually unlimited range. 

The current types of missile defences are not  adequate to defend against hypersonic missiles.  

Our whole defence system is based on the  assumption that we are going to intercept  

the ballistic objects. A security analyst of  American think tank RAND Corporation says,  

"A ballistic missile is like a fly ball in  baseball. The outfielder knows exactly where  

to catch it because it is path is determined  by momentum and gravity. It is a different  

scenario for hypersonics. The combination of  the different manoeuvrability and the speed  

makes hypersonic missiles unpredictable  and extremely difficult to defend against." 

That's all for today guys, If you have a  great article to be discussed about military,  

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