The Russian Defense Ministry has signed the first contract for the supply of hypersonic missiles "Zircon". Alexey Podberezkin, director of the MGIMO Center for Military and Political Studies, said on Sputnik Radio that this will significantly strengthen the combat capabilities of the Russian fleet.
The Russian Defense Ministry has signed the first state contract for the supply of hypersonic missiles "Zircon" (3M22) with the NGO mechanical engineering, the military department reported.
The document was presented to the director of the enterprise Alexander Leonov at the International military-Technical Forum "Army-2021".
The universal hypersonic cruise missile "Zircon" is capable of carrying out a long aerodynamic flight with maneuvering in dense layers of the atmosphere and hitting targets at a distance of more than a thousand kilometers. Its maximum speed reaches about nine speeds of sound (about 2.65 kilometers per second).
It is assumed that the project 22350 frigates, the latest 885M Yasen-M multi-purpose submarines, as well as the Admiral Nakhimov missile cruiser and the Irkutsk submarine will be armed with Zircons.
On the air of Sputnik radio, the director of the Center for Military and Political Studies of MGIMO, Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexey Podberezkin noted that with the delivery of the Zircon missiles, the combat capabilities of the Russian fleet will significantly increase.