Dmitry Litovkin - what is known about hypersonic missiles of the Russian Federation
High speed, maneuverability and low radar visibility technologies make the Russian hypersonic missile "Zircon" one of the most effective combat systems on the planet. The other day, representatives of the Reutov NPO of mechanical Engineering admitted that in addition to ships and submarines, their product will be placed on airplanes. And the British tabloid The Sun published an article dedicated to the "chilling" shots of a rocket launch from the frigate Admiral Gorshkov in the White Sea. As foreign journalists explain, the video was filmed in December 2021, but it was shown only in March 2022, ostensibly in order to more clearly demonstrate the arsenal of shock weapons of the Russian army against the background of a special operation in Ukraine.
High degree
Nevertheless, the "Zircon" still remains a weapon with a high degree of secrecy. Anatoly Svintsov, a representative of the Deputy general director of the NPO Mashinostroeniya, had previously categorically refused to tell what the rocket was like. He only said with a smile that she was going in a transport and launch container. But this detail also gives a wide field for speculation.
Frigate "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov" during the firing of a hypersonic missile "Zircon"
Image source: © Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/TASS
In 2011, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that they spent 2 billion rubles on the study of hypersonic technologies, and at MAKS, the Central Institute of Aviation Engine Building from Lytkarin near Moscow showed how a "hypersonic missile" could look like: like axed shapes with no less strange air intakes of jagged outlines, like the edges of a hand saw.
BrahMos Aerospace Limited seemed to go the furthest. A joint Russian-Indian enterprise that produces a rocket based on the Onyx missile defense system has repeatedly demonstrated a mock-up of its hypersonic version. The Indians said that it not only exists in iron, but is also ready for testing. Moreover, they have already managed to adapt the BrahMos missile for operation as part of the Su-30MKI fighter's armament. Apparently, with the hypersonic version of the upgraded Onyx, this is quite possible. However, in recent years, the Indians have been stubbornly silent about the hypersonic missile, its model has even disappeared from the stands of the enterprise at various military-technical exhibitions.
At the end of February 2022, the commander of the frigate Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov, Captain of the 1st rank Igor Krokhmal, reported that the Zircon could hit targets at a distance of up to 1.5 thousand km, whereas previously it was believed that up to 1 thousand km. "Shooting will be conducted at a distance of 1 thousand to 1.5 thousand km. If we take 1 thousand km and divide by the speed of Mach 9, we get a flight time of 580-620 seconds," explained the commander of the ship, commenting on the test firing in the Barents Sea. At the same time, the remaining characteristics of the rocket are still kept in the strictest secrecy, even the appearance of the rocket is a secret - for example, the ship "Zircons" is loaded in closed containers, the officer noted.
The mystery in the case
"Chilling," as British journalists put it, the launch actually contained nothing extraordinary, in my opinion, even taking into account the long distance from which the shooting was conducted. The "Zircon" starts in the same way as the "Onyx" does: the transport and launch container comes out of the missile silo, the powder accelerator is fired, which threw the car out of it. Then, in the head of the rocket, you can see several flashes - these are the engines that set the direction of flight for it. After that, this block flies off to the side. A more powerful and dazzling flash follows - the main engine turns on, and the rocket literally dissolves into the northern sky. At the same time, the other day, during exercises in the Crimea, the Ministry of Defense showed firing with the Bastion coastal missile system - so, if you compare the "sea" video and the "land" one, it is obvious that the ship's missile flies much faster.
Launch of the Onyx cruise supersonic missile from the Bastion coastal missile system
Image source: © Russian Ministry of Defense/TASS
Soviet and Russian missiles have flown hypersonic before, for example, the famous X-22 "Storm". The other day, her or her upgraded version of the X-32 (the missiles are identical in appearance) was shown as part of the armament of the Tu-22M3 long-range bomber at the Russian Khmeimim airbase in Syria. The first one is not new at all (actually adopted in 1968). With a weight of about 6 tons and a length of 12 m, the missile carries a high-explosive or nuclear warhead weighing a ton. In the 1990s, based on the X-22, according to my data, a Russian-German experiment was conducted to achieve hypersonic speed. To do this, it took "only" to put additional rocket boosters on it.
The hypersonic also includes the Dagger aeroballistic missile (developed by JSC NPK KB Mashinostroeniya) - as Vedomosti reported, according to information received from the United Aircraft Corporation, it is an aviation variant of the Iskander complex. In order to disperse the "Dagger" to hypersound, the MiG-31K high-altitude bomber (which actually serves as the first stage of the rocket) must climb to heights from 12 to 15 thousand. m and gain a maximum speed of 2 thousand km / h (the fighter dives, thereby gaining additional acceleration) and send the rocket as if "on a sled" to the target - that will accelerate to hypersound during the flight.
MiG-31K fighter with hypersonic missile "Dagger"
Image source: © Alexey Nikolsky/Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation/TASS
These examples illustrate two principles of obtaining exorbitant speeds. In the first case, the product is dispersed - as, for example, nuclear warheads with ballistic missiles. In the second case, the car is gaining acceleration to a greater extent on its own. This is the main secret of the "Zircon": the powder battery simply takes it out of the mine, and then the rocket reaches marching speed in a matter of seconds.
Victims of Speed
Honorary General Director and Honorary General Designer of JSC "Military Industrial Complex "NPO Mashinostroeniya" Herbert Efremov noted that the engine of such a device can be "exclusively air-jet" - unlike others, only it is capable of providing a long hypersonic flight. "Solid fuel (the engine is based on ballistic missiles "Topol-M", "Yars" and "Bulava" - approx. TASS) is not good here at all, because it can disperse, but it is impossible to fly with it for a long time. In the case of hypersonic missiles, this is unacceptable. On our Onyx rocket, only the launch accelerator is solid-fuel. Then she flies on a liquid ramjet engine," Herbert Efremov lifted the veil of secrecy.
At the same time, according to him, special fuel is also needed. "A liquid rocket engine contains an oxidizer and fuel in different tanks, which are mixed in the combustion chamber. An air-jet engine is powered by one fuel: kerosene, decilin or bicilin. Oxidizer - incoming air. Bicilin is a fuel obtained from vacuum gas oil using hydrogenation processes. This liquid fuel has a very high density, which makes it possible to make a tank of a smaller volume," the designer said.
At the same time, at hypersonic speed, an oxidizer - oxygen - must be supplied to the combustion chamber at subsonic speed. This explains the strange shape of hypersonic missiles and their air intakes: all these protrusions, teeth and other dampers are designed to maximally slow down the intake of air into the rocket engine.
There is another complication. During the flight at speeds of more than Mach 6, any device begins to move in a plasma cloud - it burns like a meteorite. To protect it, special heat-resistant materials are needed, because if the aerodynamics of the body is disrupted, it will fall; overheat the radio equipment inside - the same outcome: it will fall. During MAKS-2019, another secret of the "Zircon" may have been revealed. The manufacturer of our cruise missiles, the Tactical Missile Armament Corporation (KTRV, a member of the Union of Machine Builders), in addition to the main products, actively promoted a hip joint prosthesis made of a "carbon-carbon" composite. According to the company's press release, this material withstands a burning temperature of up to 2.5 thousand degrees and its properties are very similar to human bone tissue. Gorenje Why should the prosthesis "tolerate" a burning temperature of more than 2 thousand degrees, you can leave it out of brackets.Gorenje But for hypersonic vehicles, a "skin" made of such material would be very useful.
Get the "Daggers"
Anatoly Svintsov, Deputy General Director of NPO Mashinostroeniya, said that the Zircon was initially developed in both marine and aviation versions. "The customer decided at the first stage to intensify work on the creation of a marine version of the rocket. According to the aviation version, we also have a big backlog. When the time comes, we will definitely continue this work, but for now the country already has a hypersonic aviation missile - this is the Dagger missile," Svintsov noted.
According to the Ministry of Defense, the latter is actively used in a special operation in Ukraine. A few days ago, with the help of "Daggers", a large underground warehouse of missiles and aviation ammunition of Ukrainian troops was destroyed in the settlement of Delyatin in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Following this, the official representative of the military department, Igor Konashenkov, reported that a large storage base for fuel and lubricants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of the settlement of Konstantinovka of the Mykolaiv region was destroyed. "It provided the main fuel supplies for Ukrainian armored vehicles in combat areas in the south of Ukraine," Konashenkov said. Both of these facts indicate that the development of Russian military equipment is not limited to "presentation videos", but ensures its effective use.
For a better understanding, I will clarify: the Dagger itself is a very formidable weapon, and the aviation version of the machine, thanks to the MiG-31 fighter, is able to enter hypersonic flight mode, which makes it practically non-interceptable for air and missile defense. About ten types of warheads can be used on a missile that is used as part of the complex: nuclear, cluster (consisting of 54 separate combat elements), penetrating (for the destruction of buried, well-protected objects), high-explosive, volumetric detonating, cruise (not only allow hitting ground objects, but also protrude in the role of anti-ship weapons).
At the moment, one MiG-31K lifts one Dagger missile, Tu-22M3 - four Daggers or up to two X-32 missiles. It is still unclear how many Zircons, for example, the Tu-160 or Tu-95 strategic missile carrier, will be able to take on board, but if this happens, the nomenclature of hypersonic weapons of our army will have no analogues in the world.
