05.10.2021

"It's not a sensation, it's a shock." Expert on tests of the Zircon rocket from the submarine

Sections: Missile and artillery, Sea, Status and prospects, New development, Global safety

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Image source: © РИА Новости / Пресс-служба Минобороны РФ

Alexey Podberezkin, director of the MGIMO Center for Military and Political Studies, explained what the successful tests of the Zircon hypersonic missile from a nuclear submarine say on Sputnik radio.

For the first time, the Russian Navy has tested a hypersonic missile "Zircon" from the nuclear submarine "Severodvinsk".

According to the Ministry of Defense, the shooting was carried out on a conditional naval target in the Barents Sea, the flight of the missile corresponded to the specified parameters, the means of objective control confirmed the successful defeat of the target.

Last year, as well as in July of this year, it was reported about the successful launches of the Zircon from the frigate of the Northern Fleet Admiral Gorshkov.

The hypersonic cruise missile "Zircon" is capable of carrying out a long aerodynamic flight with maneuvering in dense layers of the atmosphere on the thrust of its own engine and hitting targets at a distance of more than a thousand kilometers. Its maximum speed is about nine speeds of sound (approximately 2.65 kilometers per second).

On the air of Sputnik radio, director of the MGIMO Center for Military and Political Studies, Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexey Podberezkin commented on the tests.

"This is the first test from a submarine of a truly hypersonic missile. The Americans say they have already experienced hypersound, but in fact it was a supersonic missile test. And our tests are a hypersonic missile with a speed of more than Mach 7, with a range that exceeds the generally accepted idea of the average range of missiles. This is already more of a strategic missile that is capable of striking at long distances. This is of fundamental importance. Since the launch of the "Zircon", let's assume, from the Black Sea is able to control the entire space of the Mediterranean Sea. And the strike is so effective that one missile is enough to destroy a heavy cruiser or an aircraft carrier," Alexey Podberezkin said.

According to him, the current tests in their significance can be compared with the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957.

"This is not even a sensation, it is a shock strong enough, which, I am sure, will affect the political balance of forces and the global military-political situation. This is not an ordinary test of a rocket, this is not an ordinary test of a sample of a new type of equipment. These are decisive adjustments in the global strategic balance, leveling the American superiority in the naval forces, which they tried to develop by creating a huge fleet of sea-based cruise missiles. This largely negates the efforts of 30-40 years of US military construction at sea," Alexey Podberezkin said.

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