Russia announced the launch of ‘invincible’ Zircon missile, hitting a target 1,000km away

Photo released on May 28, 2022 shows the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile being launched from the Admiral Gorshkov guided-missile frigate during a test in the Barents Sea – Photo: REUTERS/Russian Defense Ministry

According to AFP news agency, the Ministry of Defense Russia The Zircon hypersonic cruise missile was launched from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the Barents Sea and hit a target 1,000km away in the White Sea (northwest Russia).

The Russian Defense Ministry added that the test was part of an ongoing process of “testing new weapons”.

The first official test of the Zircon missile took place in October 2020 – a test described by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “major event”. After that, the country continued to conduct other tests with this missile, launched from frigates and from submarines.

This weapon can reach speeds of 5 to 10 times the speed of sound and has a maximum range of about 1,000km. President Putin described Zircon as part of a new generation of invincible weapons systems.

In March, Russia said it had used another hypersonic missile called Kinzhal with high accuracy for the first time in combat, specifically in the Ukraine battlefield.

Kinzhal is one of the new-generation weapons announced by Putin in 2018. This weapon is more difficult to track and intercept by enemy missile defense systems than conventional weapons, due to its speed. their altitude as well as the fact that they are launched at a lower altitude towards the target.

Last month, The Russian Defense Ministry also announced that it had successfully tested the first Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile and called Sarmat the most powerful missile with the longest range in the world. The Sarmat missile is capable of carrying 10 nuclear warheads and simultaneously hitting targets thousands of kilometers away in the US or Europe.