The Admiral Gorshkov battleship simulates attacking a target at a distance of 900 km with a Zircon missile while patrolling the western Atlantic Ocean.
“The crew of the Admiral Gorshkov corvette performed a series of missions in the western Atlantic region, including the firing drills of the Zircon hypersonic missile using computer simulation.” Russian military figure Zvezda said today but did not disclose the specific location.
Video released by the Russian military shows the crew of Admiral Gorshkov’s ship detecting and catching a simulated target at a distance of more than 900 km on a computer system, then opening the Zircon missile launch tube and performing it. Electron launch.
The electronic launch is a combat training process similar to a real-life situation in which the crew performs a full range of operations from catching to pressing the fire button. Still, the missile does not leave the launch pad but is simulated to rush. Target on the screen.
The Admiral Gorshkov corvette began a long patrol on January 4, expected to be present in the Atlantic, Indian, and Mediterranean. Russia’s move is believed to be intended to signal to the West that it will not back down in the conflict in Ukraine.
3M22 Zircon is one of the hypersonic weapons developed by Russia, praised by President Vladimir Putin as an “invincible weapon.”
The Kremlin boss first revealed the Zircon missile in a speech in February 2019, saying that the weapon can hit sea and ground targets within a range of 1,000 km at a speed of more than 11,000 km. /h, nine times the sound. Russia first fired the Zircon missile in October 2020 and conducted 12 test launches from surface ships and submarines in 2021, all of which hit the target.
Moscow is expected to equip this hypersonic missile for a series of surface ships and submarines, thanks to the ability to share vertical launchers with Kalibr cruise missiles and Oniks anti-ship missiles in the current service.
Hypersonic missiles are weapons with a minimum speed of 5 times of sound (Mach 5), equivalent to more than 6,200 km/h. Thanks to their trajectory and speed, hypersonic weapons are more lethal and nearly impossible to intercept with today’s defensive shields.