The Russian Navy’s latest warship, Gremyashchiy, will carry the Zircon hypersonic anti-ship
cruise missiles.
According to Russian state media, the warship's captain and Russian President Vladimir Putin
stated this during Putin’s visit aboard the vessel on October 31.
Putin reportedly said, “the Zircons will certainly be there.”
The warship will be launched later this year and is expected to join the Pacific fleet.
The missile a counter to the U.S. Navy’s air defense system.
In this video Defense Updates why the deployment of Zircon hypersonic missile-armed Gremyashchiy
warship is a genuine threat for the U.S military?
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 3,836 mph or 6,174 kph.
There are currently two methods being applied to make hypersonic weapons.
The first is using Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV).
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 by 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 missile
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.
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.
The main defensive weapon consists of the following:
1.
Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) is the primary air defense system.
It has a range of 10 nmi or 19 km and speed of Mach 3.5 Arleigh Burke class has 96 cell
Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) whereas Ticonderoga class 122 of these.
Each can be quad packed with ESSM.
2.
RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air
missile meant for point defense.
It has a speed in excess of Mach 2 and has a range of 9 km or 5.6 mi.
3.
Phalanx Close-in Weapon System is deployed for last-ditch defense against airborne threats.
It uses an automated 20 mm Gatling gun which is capable of firing up to 50 rounds per second.
They could potentially be saturated by a barrage of supersonic anti-ship and against hypersonic
missiles, they are almost ineffective.
U.S Navy’s surface fleet also has warships that incorporate the Aegis Combat System.
The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System is designed by the United States Department
of Defense, Missile Defense Agency to protect against short and intermediate-range ballistic
missiles.
It enables the warships to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles by expanding the Aegis
Combat System with the addition of the AN/SPY-1 radar and Standard missiles like SM-2 or SM-3
missile.
But this system is not designed to defend against maneuvering cruise missiles.
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 can 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”.
Gremyashchiy is the lead ship of the Gremyashchiy class.
The Gremyashchiy class meaning 'Thunderous' is an advanced development of the Steregushchiy-class
corvettes of the Russian Navy.
This follow-on project was designed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau in Saint
Petersburg.
Ships of this class have a displacement of 2,500 tons
The warship has a speed of 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) and range of around 4,000 nmi (7,400
km; 4,600 mi)
The ship is armed with two 30mm AK-630M close-in weapons systems for defense against enemy
aircraft
For long range air defense, a 16-cell launcher is present that can fire 9K96 surface-to-air
missiles.
2 × 4 330 mm torpedo tubes are present for Paket-NK anti-torpedo/anti-submarine torpedoes
A 100mm А190-01 lightweight multi-purpose naval artillery gun is mounted in the bow
to engage enemy surface ships, coastal and air targets from close range.
2 × 14.5 mm MTPU pedestal machine guns are also present.
Till this revelation, Gremyashchiy Class was expected to carry 8 Kalibr land-attack cruise
missiles which is similar in capability to American Tomahawk missile.
It is subsonic and has a range of 1,500 miles or 2400 km.
But with this announcement, it is clear that Zircon will also be deployed depending on
the mission
The most important aspect of Zircon is its speed.
The speed would give air defenses very little time to detect & fire interceptors.
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.
Gremyashchiy 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.
Secondly, with Zircon, the warship would be able to target important land targets as the
Aegis BMD will not be able to intercept them.
It remains to be seen how the U.S responds.