The Russian Navy will start sending so-called hypersonic missiles to sea as early as 2022. Capable of flying five to six times the speed of sound, the missiles will be carried by both aging battlecruisers and brand-new submarines, giving each the ability to quickly kill enemy ships.

Currently in advanced stages of development, the Zircon anti-ship missile is capable of flying at hypersonic speeds, between 3,800 to 4,600 miles an hour. That's fast enough to travel from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. in just over thirty minutes.

According to Moscow's state press, Zircon is undergoing land-based testing and and is planned to enter production in 2018. Zircon almost certainly builds upon Russian know-how in hypersonics, learned during the the joint development of the Russian-Indian BrahMos hypersonic anti-ship missile . Brahmos has a maximum speed of Mach 2.8 and a range of about 180 miles.

The extreme speed of the Zircon will make it very tough for navies to defend against. At 4,600 miles an hour, the Russian hypersonic missile will be traveling faster than a mile a second. Even if a defending ship were to detect an incoming Zircon at 100 miles, that leaves the ship just over one minute to shoot the missile down.

Zircon's striking range and warhead size are both currently unknown. Space inside every missile is at a premium, with the high explosive warhead, guidance system, engine and fuel all competing for room. The missile is meant to fit inside the new 3S-14 shipboard missile silo system, which can also fit Onyx and Kalibur anti-ship missiles.

This suggests a similar size to both, but Zircon's hypersonic engine will likely be larger than either of the slower missiles. Zircon could have a relatively short range and small warhead size; BrahMos, for example, has a large propulsion system but a short range and a relatively small 440 pound warhead. Of course it is worth noting that an object traveling at Mach 6 imparts devastating kinetic energy on its target, compensating for a smaller explosive warhead.

Zircon will be deployed on the battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy when it emerges from shipyard overhaul in 2022. The battlecruiser , the largest surface combatant currently in operation in any navy, will be equipped with ten of the missiles. Zircon will also be deployed on Russia's next-generation "Husky" class attack submarines, currently under development.

Source: The National Interest

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