Moscow. November 8th. INTERFAX-AVN - The contract for the supply of new hypersonic Zircon missiles to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is of a long-term nature, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"Now the tests have almost been completed, and we are considering signing, or to be more precise, it has already been signed - a long-term contract for Zircons. This is a hypersonic weapon," Shoigu said in an interview with the host of the program "Moscow. The Kremlin. Putin" to Pavel Zarubin. The interview was shown on Monday by the TV channel "Russia-24 (VGTRK).
On November 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that tests of the Zircon missile are being completed, it will enter service with the Russian fleet in 2022.
As Interfax reported, the Russian Defense Ministry signed a contract for the supply of Zircon missiles (Tactical Missile Armament Corporation, KTRV) on August 24 at the Army-2021 military-technical forum.
Prior to that, the military reported successful test launches of the Zircon from the frigate of the Northern Fleet Admiral Gorshkov, in particular, in July of this year, as well as in December, November and October 2020.
On October 4, the Russian military conducted the first test launch of a hypersonic missile "Zircon" from a submarine of the Northern Fleet.
In February 2019, in a message to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Putin announced that the Zircon missile would be capable of hitting ground and surface targets at a range of over 1,000 kilometers at a speed of about Mach 9. In December 2019, the president said that according to the plan, work is underway on the Zircon hypersonic missile, not only sea-based, but also land-based.
