Russia successfully test-launched its Zircon also known as Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile from
the Project 22350 Admiral Gorshkov warship. The test took place on 19 July 2021.
Viewers may note that the warship has 16
UKSK VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells , each of which can accommodate a single Zircon missile.
The Russian defense ministry in a statement said that the
missile was fired from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea.
It was added that it struck a ground target located on the coast of the Barents Sea, more
than 350 kilometers or 217 miles away, with the missile traveling at 7 times the speed of sound.
The ministry said that “the tactical and technical characteristics of the Tsirkon missile
were confirmed during the tests.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that Zircon was “part of a new
generation of missile systems without equal in the world.”
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why the Russian
Zircon hypersonic missile is actually lethal?
Let’s get into the details.
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In 2018, Putin announced that Russia was developing a series of new weapons,
Zircon was one of them.
The missile represents a further development of the HELA (Hypersonic Experimental Flying
Vehicle) developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya that was on display at the 1995 MAKS air show.
As per President Putin’s address in the Russian Federal Assembly,
the Zircon is capable of reaching speeds of Mach 9.
President Putin mentioned that the missile is able to destroy both sea-going and land targets.
As per reports, the Zircon will have both a 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”.
An object is said to be hypersonic once they exceed the 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 kph.
While there are several ways to achieve hypersonic speed, Zircon is thought to use a Scramjet engine.
The scramjet is an innovation on the Ramjet. Ramjet engines 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.
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.
This is where a hypersonic missile is different
since they have very high speed, but can also maneuverer in flight.
There are 4 aspects that make Zircon a lethal weapon.
1. The speed makes it almost unstoppable. It is noted that even the excellent Aegis system
equipping the American Arleigh Burke Class destroyers will be too slow to react in time.
2. 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.
3. Another important aspect of the missile is
its plasma cloud. As per multiple reports, the air pressure in front of the weapon
forms a plasma cloud as it moves and 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 partially invisible.
It is highly likely that the missile will be detected very late and this will make
intercepting Zircon almost impossible with the current crop of air defense systems.
4. The missile can actually fly at low altitude, and hence it is very hard to
defend against as the radar will catch it much later when compared to traditional missiles.
Zircon's characteristics 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 missiles 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.”
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.”