“The Tsirkon may be test-launched for the first time from the [Northern Fleet’s nuclear-powered submarine]
Severodvinsk in June as the earliest date,” a defense industry insider source told the Russian state news outlet TASS earlier this month. The source added that there is “there is no exact date for the start of trials so far,” suggesting that these plans have yet to be finalized.
TASS likewise reported that the Navy has decided to fast-track the remainder of Tsirkon’s state trials. An insider source described a frenzied testing schedule for the new missile: “The frigate will test-fire the hypersonic weapon twice during the year as part of flight development tests and up to four times as part of state joint trials. Simultaneously, the Tsirkon’s flight development tests from the submarine will begin in summer. Up to four launches are expected to be made, the first of which will be performed from the surface position. In autumn, state trials from the [submarin
When will this fast, high-tech weapon be deployed and ready for serial production?
Russia’s hypersonic Tsirkon cruise missile inches ever closer to deployment, with defense officials announcing a timetable for its final trials and subsequent entry into service.
Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexey Krivoruchko announced late last month that the Tsirkon missile is on the verge of completing state trials. “These positive results,” he said, in reference to prior Tsirkon tests, “make it possible to begin the next trial stage: firing from submarine carriers.”
3M22 Tsirkon, also known as Zircon (North Atlantic Treaty Organization reporting name SS-N-33) is a winged, hypersonic anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile that entered testing and development in the early 2010s. There is some recent indication, offered by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the late 2019, that a land-based Tsirkon variant is being developed, but the missile seems to be primarily intended as a submari