MOSCOW, 8 Apr-RIA Novosti. The multi-purpose nuclear submarine Severodvinsk (project 885, code "Ash") will become the main test base for hypersonic missiles "Zircon", a source in the military-industrial complex told RIA Novosti.
The Severodvinsk submarine was commissioned into the Russian Navy in 2014, and today it is armed with Kalibr and Onyx cruise missiles.
Earlier, another source told RIA Novosti that this year the tests of the Zircon missile from the Northern Fleet frigate project 22350 "Admiral Gorshkov" will continue. The first launch of hypersonic missiles in 2021 is scheduled for early summer.
To date, Admiral Gorshkov has already completed three launches of the Zircon ,and all of them are recognized as successful.
The submarine "Severodvinsk" is the lead and so far the only boat of this project in the combat composition of the Russian Navy. This year, the lead boat of the project 885M "Kazan" and the first serial "Novosibirsk" are to join the fleet.
The hypersonic missile "Zircon" is capable of reaching a speed of Mach 9 (nine times the speed of sound, more than 10 thousand kilometers per hour), has a flight range of more than a thousand kilometers.
