New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday confirmed that the 3M22 Zircon hypersonic missile had been used in battle, presenting a new challenge to the embattled Ukrainian air defence systems in the ongoing war between the two countries.
Putin, speaking to the Russian parliament in his annual state-of-the-nation address, announced that the Zircon missile, hypersonic glide vehicle Avangard and laser-based weapon for air defence Peresvet were on combat duty.
“The hypersonic sea-based complex Zircon has also already been used in battle. The hypersonic units of the intercontinental range Avangard (and) the laser systems Peresvet are on combat duty,” said Putin during his address, as translated by Reuters.
In May 2022, Russia had said it had used laser-based weaponry on the battlefield in Ukraine – a claim that was derided then by Ukrainian president Volodmyr Zelenskyy, comparing it to the “wonder weapons” that Nazi Germany claimed to be developing during World War II.
However, Kyiv alleged earlier this month that fragments of the Zircon hypersonic missile were found from an attack by Russia on Ukraine on 7 February, according to Reuters.
Putin announcing that the missile has been used in combat is an advancement of the Russian air campaign against Kyiv.
According to Russian claims, the 3M22 Zircon can reach eight times the speed of sound and has a range of about 400 kilometres. A missile or an aircraft is classified as hypersonic if it is capable of reaching speeds of Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound) or more.
If Russia’s claims are true, the Zircon missile could evade the advanced US Patriot air defence system. Ukraine has used the Patriot system to shoot down a wide range of Russian missiles, including the hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, as reported by ThePrint last year.
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Capabilities of Zircon missile
The 3M22 Zircon is a hypersonic cruise missile that is powered by a scramjet engine – that uses the flow of air at supersonic speeds, compressed by the forward motion of the missile, to drive it forward, explains a commentary published by Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) earlier this year.
The Zircon is expected to be compatible with the 3S-14 vertical launch systems found in the Admiral Gorshkov and the Admiral Grigorovich class frigates of the Russian navy, notes RUSI.
A hypersonic missile is not just about speed but also low-altitude flying and manoeuvrability.
Western maritime platforms such as a destroyer’s electronic support measures would detect a missile flying on a low-attitude trajectory at a distance of roughly to 12-14 nautical miles – which means that if a Zircon is launched at hypersonic speeds, the naval vessel would have roughly 15 seconds to react, RUSI highlighted.
Moreover, given the speeds of the missile, it would be able to cause more damage to stationary ground targets, especially deep and hardened targets. The Russian claims of Zircon missile being capable of hitting Mach 8 speed, if true, would make it the fastest missile in the world, according to US-based non-profit Missile Defence Advocacy Alliance.
“If that information is accurate, the Zircon missile would be the fastest in the world, making it nearly impossible to defend against due to its speed alone,” it says.
However, it should be noted that Russia in the past has claimed that its hypersonic missiles are “unstoppable” — claims that have been disproven with the shooting down of the Kinzhal missiles by Ukrainian air defence systems.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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