Russia successfully test-launched its Zircon also known as Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile
from a military vessel for the first time early early in January as reported by TASS.
This is a major step when it comes to fielding hypersonic weapons.
As per source of TASS, “In accordance with the Tsirkon’s state testing program, in
early January this year, the Admiral Gorshkov (ship) carried out the test launch of this
missile from the Barents Sea to a ground target in one of the military ranges in the northern
Urals,”.
Reports indicate that the flight exceeded 500 km or 310 miles.
The next stage in the Zircon development after tests from the Admiral Gorshkov would be a
test launch from a nuclear submarine.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes the deployment of Zircon missile in Admiral Gorshkov
warship.
Let’s get into the details.
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An object is said to be hypersonic once they exceed speeds of Mach 5 or 5 times the speed
of sound.
This is about 1,715 meters per second or 3,836mph or 6,174 kmh.
There are currently 3 methods being applied to make hypersonic weapons.
The first is using HGV or Hypersonic Glide Vehicle.
In this method, the system is launched to extremely high altitudes using Ballistic Missile
or an aircraft where it skips across the Earth’s upper atmosphere.
The vehicle then separates from the carrier and glides back to the earth towards its intended
target attaining hypersonic speed.
The second is through the use of ALBM or Air-Launched Ballistic missile.
As the name suggests, this kind of missile is ballistic in nature but is launched from
air, unlike traditional ballistic missiles which are launched from land or sea-based
platforms.
The third is using a Scramjet engine.
The scramjet is an innovation on the Ramjet.
Ramjet engine can power flight to supersonic speeds but scramjet can enable the missiles
to reach hypersonic speeds.
These engines have no moving parts, like the compressors and turbines used in the turbofan
engines found on conventional jet planes.
They rely on the huge pressures created by fast airflow into the engine to ignite the
fuel and generate thrust.
In this method, a rocket booster is used to accelerate the missile to hypersonic speed,
then the scramjet engine kicks in and enables the missile to fly at sustained hypersonic
speed.
Zircon uses this method.
It must be noted that traditional ballistic like American Minuteman III, Russian Sarmat
or Indian Agni missile all travel at hypersonic speeds, but they follow a predictable ballistic
trajectory and can’t maneuver mid-course.
As per President Putin’s address in the Russian Federal Assembly, the Zircon is capable
of reaching speeds of Mach 9.
So it is much faster than a bullet fired from a sniper rifle, actually almost 3 times the
speed of a sniper’s bullet.
The kinetic energy alone will rip a ship apart like a tin can.
Mr. Putin stated that the missile has a range of over 1000 km or 620 miles.
The missile weighs 5 tons.
President Putin mentioned that the missile is able to destroy both sea-going and land
targets.
As per reports, the Zircon will have both radar target seeker and an optical-electronic
complex to detect and track targets.
The missile could be equipped with a High explosive warhead or even a tactical nuclear
warhead.
Mr. Putin had told the Zircon is mainly intended to be deployed in seagoing platforms such
as “serially made surface warships and submarines, including those that are already operational
and being built”.
Admiral Gorshkov class also known as Project 22350 is the Russian Navy’s newest class
of frigate.
Russian Navy plans to manufacture as many as 15 of the warships but the number could
swell up to 30.
The lead ship of the class Admiral Gorshkov was commissioned on 28 July 2018.
The Admiral Gorshkov class has a length of 120 m.
To give viewers a perspective, it same as the length of a football field.
The warship has been designed with stealth in mind and the external contours are laid
out in such a way that they reflect the radar signal away from the emitting source, thereby
reducing the RCS (Radar Cross Section)
The warships of the class displace around 5,400 tons when fully loaded.
The Admiral Gorshkov warships will have a speed of 29.5 knots or 54.6 km/h or 33.9 mph
and a range of 4,850 nmi or 8,980 km or 5,580 mi.
Admiral Gorshkov is equipped with state of the art sensors that will provide excellent
situational awareness.
The Admiral Gorshkov Class is designed as multirole warships capable of carrying out
air defense, anti-surface warfare, and anti-submarine warfare.
It is actually the most heavily armed frigate in the world as the design has accommodated
a lot of option including 48 VLS or Vertical Launch System cells.
For the anti-surface role, 16 (2 × 8) UKSK VLS cells are dedicated.
They currently carry P-800 Oniks and/or Kalibr missiles.
P-800 has 600 km or around 370 miles engagement range and can travel at speed of Mach 2.5.
It has a 250 kg or 550 lbs High Explosive warhead.
The anti ship missile variant of Kalibr family of missiles has a range of 300 km or around
185 miles and flies at a speed of Mach 3.
It carries a 500 kg or 1100 lbs warhead.
It is likely that these VLS has now been used for for launching Zircon though not yet confirmed.
The most important aspect of Zircon is its speed.
The speed would give air defenses very little time to detect & fire interceptors.
Current air defense systems can defend against subsonic missiles reliably and are effective
against supersonic missile to an extent, but against hypersonic missiles, they will fail.
It is to be noted that America’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) report has stated
that the U.S currently lacks the defenses required to protect against the latest crop
of hypersonic weapons being developed by China and Russia.
The report states, “China and Russia are pursuing hypersonic
weapons because their speed, altitude, and maneuverability may defeat most missile defense
systems, and they may be used to improve long-range conventional and nuclear strike capabilities.
There are no existing countermeasures.”
Viewers can go through the report from the link given in the ‘Description’ section
below.
In its response to the GAO, the Department of Defense described the report as “an accurate
although sobering macro picture of how the US stands in the world against emerging threats.”
Another important aspect of the missile is its plasma cloud.
As per multiple reports, the missile is completely covered by a plasma cloud during the flight.
The plasma cloud would absorb radio frequencies emitted from radars and since the waves are
not reflected back, it will essentially mean that the missile will be invisible.
It is highly likely that the missile will be detected very late and this will make intercepting
Zircon almost impossible to intercept with the current crop of air defense systems.
Admiral Gorshkov armed with Zircon will be a credible threat to American assets especially
the US Navy supercarrier and the carrier strike group.
Since Zircon is heavy and fast, it will have lots of Kinetic Energy which will come into
play along with the explosive warhead and a single hit from it could be enough to cripple
even a supercarrier.