Russia successfully test-fired Tsirkon also named Zircon
hypersonic cruise missile in the Arctic, the country's Defence Ministry has announced.
On 26 Nov, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov in the White Sea
fired a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile.
Xinhua News Agency or New China News Agency, quoted the Ministry as saying it reportedly
hit a naval target 450 km or 280 miles away in the Barents Sea at a speed of over 8 Mach.
The outlet also reported that the same frigate test-fired the Tsirkon missile for the first time,
striking a ground target over 500 km or 310 miles. It further added last month, the warship deployed
in the White Sea destroyed a naval target in the Barents Sea with a Tsirkon missile.
The interesting point to note is that all these details are published in the
Chinese media out, ideally, China should have nothing to do with this.
So, there is obviously more than what meets the eyes.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how Russian President Putin has scuttled Chinese premier
Xi Jinping’s North Sea Route ambitions with Zircon hypersonic missile?
Let’s get started
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As the ice caps melt in the Arctic, it will become economically viable to navigate.
Russia is gearing up to monetize the potentially lucrative
Northern Sea Route (NSR) as the Barents Sea and Arctic thaw faster than anticipated.
In August 2017, the first ship traversed the Northern Sea Route without the use of icebreakers.
The Dutch Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis projected in 2015 that the
Northern Sea Route may be ice-free by 2030 A 2016 report by the Copenhagen Business School
found that large-scale trans-Arctic shipping may become economically viable by 2040
The Northern Sea Route could make connectivity between Europe and Asia 40% faster, cheaper,
more fuel-efficient, and greener. Russia will lose land as the ice melt,
but it may gain nearly 1.2 m sq km in its continental shelf
which means it will have rights to extract under-sea minerals and energy resources.
Zircon is the first hypersonic missile that has been operationally deployed.
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 3,836 mph or 6,174 kph.
At Mach 8, it would take the Zircon about 164 seconds
to reach a target 280 miles away or 450 km.
If a target ship has its search radar mounted 100 feet off the ground and Zircon flies at an
altitude of 1,000 feet, the radar would be able to detect the missile around 50 miles or 80 km out.
From that point, Zircon will need only 29-30 seconds to hit the ship.
This means the ship will have only about half a minute to detect, track, identify, launch
interceptor missiles, and achieve intercept. Currently, there is no dependable
way to counter this missile. Also, 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 an American supercarrier.
Testing of such a lethal missile in the Arctic is a message that Russia
is serious about defending its rights. It is similar to another such move.
In early June 2017, reports from Russian media indicated that yet another Ground Forces missile
brigade received the dreaded Iskander-M missile system. The brigade was the 29th Army’s newly
established 3rd Missile Brigade, based in Russia’s enormous Eastern Military District. Viewers may
note that Eastern Military District is basically meant to defend against any Chinese invasion.
Initially, Russian President Putin had dismissed climate change.
But he has moved away from that line and signed the Paris Accord on climate change.
Mr. Putin is now trying to use it as an advantage.
He stated in this context, "The issue," he has said, "is
not stopping it because that's impossible, since it could be tied to some global cycles on Earth
or of planetary significance. … The issue is to somehow adapt to it."
Russia is building up its military presence in the region at a rapid pace to protect its interests.
It now has seven bases along the shipping route,
the latest being Northern Clover on Kotelny Island, deep inside the Arctic.
The Russian military is spending significant resources to ram up its muscle in the Arctic
and the naval activities in the region have increased many folds.
Russia considers the Arctic has its sphere of influence and want this region to be
primarily governed by the 8 arctic nations - the United States of America, Canada, Iceland,
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Denmark with Greenland and the Faroe Islands
Moscow is not interested in having a non-arctic power including China having a share of the pie.
China announced its official Arctic policy to the world in 2018 through a white paper.
China — which is no closer to the Arctic than
Poland is — has been working on its Arctic strategy for an extended period of time,
with its induction as an observer state on the Arctic Council approved in 2013.
It identifies itself as a “Near-Arctic State” in the white paper and indicated that it has its own
economic and foreign policy interests in mind. According to the white paper, China wants to
tie the Arctic to its Belt and Road Initiative, encouraging joint efforts to construct a “Polar
Silk Road” or “blue economic passage” that would link China and Europe through the Arctic Ocean.
Beijing’s ambitions for the region clearly raises fears that it will
eventually flex its military muscle in the area as it does in the South China Sea.
When it comes to the Arctic, Russia and China are clearly not on the same page.
China’s expansionist policy has resulted in it having several disputes.
It is to be noted that behind the seemingly
friendly relations between Russia and China - differences are already brewing.
President Vladimir Putin’s homeland sometime back accused Beijing of spying.
Russian authorities have found Valery Mitko, president of its St Petersburg Arctic Social
Sciences Academy, guilty of handing over ‘classified materials to the Chinese
intelligence. This indicated that China was working actively to compromise Russian interests.
Another incident seems to have left a very bad taste. To celebrate the 160th anniversary of
Vladivostok posted a video was posted by the Russian Embassy on the Chinese social media
website Weibo. But Chinese including diplomats, journalists and social media users objected to
this almost instantly. They claim it was Qing’s Manchurian homeland but was annexed by the Russian
empire in 1860 after China was defeated by the British and the French during the Second Opium
war. Chinese claims on Vladivostok has infuriated many people in the Russian power circle.
Yevgeny Livadny, Rostec's chief of intellectual property projects on Dec. 14
said, "Unauthorized copying of our equipment abroad is a huge problem. There have been 500
such cases over the past 17 years. China alone has copied aircraft engines, Sukhoi planes,
deck jets, air defense systems, portable air defense missiles, and analogs of the Pantsir
medium-range surface-to-air systems.” This kind of outburst is rare and marks a tipping point.
Russia has also halted the delivery of critical components of S-400 air defense systems to China.
Clearly, Russia is conscious of China’s long-term goals
and this test has been done to sent a strong message to China.