Russia exposes Zircon missile data to US and NATO

The United States and NATO were monitoring joint exercises between the Russian Navy and Aerospace Forces in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, during which high-precision Zircon, Kalibr, and Onyx missiles were launched, Thomas Newdick, a TWZ columnist said.

"Undoubtedly, various U. S. and NATO assets will also have been closely monitoring this exercise and likely yielding much new high-quality intelligence on Zircon and other systems," the journalist wrote.

The Zircon missile in the video does not look like the experimental X-51 Waverider missile of the U. S. Air Force. According to him, it is more reminiscent of the HyFly experimental hypersonic missile demonstrator. The Zircon has similar dimensions to the Onyx missile, Newdick wrote.

Russian Navy launches Zircon

The Russian Navy and Aerospace Forces launched high-precision missiles in the eastern Mediterranean Sea as part of the exercises, the Russian Defence Ministry said on December 3. The ministry also published a video of the missile launches. This is the first time when the Zircon missile was shown in detail.

In particular, the footage shows the cylindrical casing covering the missile's nose, which probably protects it "from external damage and prying eyes".

• The Admiral Gorshkov and the Admiral Golovko frigates fired the Zircon hypersonic missiles during the exercise.
• The Novorossiysk submarine launched the Kalibr cruise missile.
• The Bastion complex fired the Onyx missile from the coast.
• MiG-31I fighters with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles also took part in the drills.

All the launched missiles successfully hit the designated training targets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, while speaking at the CSTO summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, announced the emergence of new missile systems.

"We see that the leaders of the Kyiv regime are hiding other military equipment from their masters. Let no one forget about Kalibr, Kinzhal and Zircon second-to-none hypersonic missile systems that we have in service. Our menu of this class of products may soon include others. As they say in such cases, the client will certainly be satisfied," President Putin said.

Details

The 3M22 Zircon, also spelled as Tsirkon (Russian: Циркон, NATO reporting name: SS-N-33) is a Russian scramjet-powered, nuclear-capable hypersonic cruise missile. Produced by NPO Mashinostroyeniya for the Russian Navy, the missile utilizes the 3S-14 launch platforms on frigates and submarines. The missile has a reported top speed of Mach 9. The weapon was first used during the Ukraine conflict. Tsirkon is reported to represent a further development of the Hypersonic Experimental Flying Vehicle (ru. GELA / HELA) developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya. In April 2017, Russian state media, TASS, reported that Zircon had reached a speed of Mach 8 (6,100 mph; 9,800 km/h; 2,700 m/s) during a flight test. Zircon was again test-fired on June 3, 2017, almost a year earlier than had been announced by Russian officials. In November 2017, Colonel General Viktor Bondarev told TASS that the missile was already in service. Another flight test reportedly occurred on December 10, 2018 during which the missile demonstrated that it could attain a speed of Mach 8.