Russia has successfully test-fired a new hypersonic cruise missile from an underwater vessel. The country's defense ministry said on Oct. 4 that the Tsirkon hypersonic missile hit its [.]
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