there Russia conducted a military exercise on the use of missile weapons in the Atlantic. In particular, the Ministry of Defense said the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov flexed his muscles by a Zircon supersonic missile a new generation that, according to Moscow, can fly nine times faster than sound and with a range of over 1,000 km.
The Moscow Test
Gorshkov conducting military maneuvers in theAtlantic Oceandid the exercise with the computer simulation. But that’s enough to get the Kremlin’s message to the West clear: while the Western bloc is ready to send main battle tanks to Ukraine, the Russian government is dusting off its supersonic missiles.
“The crew of the Admiral Gorshkov frigate, operating in the western part of the Atlantic, was trained in the use of a hypersonic missile weapon using the computer modeling method,” the Kremlin said.
The release note, which does not state that the frigate actually fired a missile, states that the frigate “Admiral Gorshkov” “in accordance with the training environment” was practicing preparations for an attack with a hypersonic Zircon missile on a maritime destination imitating an enemy dummy ship more than 900 kilometers away.
Gorshkov’s movements
From what it turned out, the frigate’s combat crew would have shown a high level coordination of actions. The ministry announced two weeks ago that the warship was conducting exercises in the North Sea.
The naval task force, consisting of the frigate admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov and the tanker Kama, was deployed under the command of the commander of the missile ship division of the Northern Fleet, Captain 1st rank Oleg Gladki.
By the way, Gorshkov himself is scheduled to conduct a series of joint exercises off the coast of the republic in February South Africa with the local navy and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy.
The Menace of Zircon
The tsirkon, also known as zircon, is a Hypersonic cruise missile unveiled for the first time by the Russian President Wladimir Putin in 2018. It was designed to fly at extremely high speeds, up to Mach 9, and at low altitudes to evade radar detection. The missile has a range of approx 1,000kmand this makes it capable of hitting targets deep in enemy territory.
Tsirkon can be launched from a variety of platforms, including submarines, ships, and land-based launch vehicles, and is capable of in-flight evasive maneuvers, making interception difficult. It should be able to carry both nuclear warheads the conventional. Russia says the missile is currently in service with the Russian military. Recall that in addition to the Ziekon, the Russian Navy also has the Onyx supersonic cruise missile and the Kalibr anti-ship missile.
The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov conducted a computer-simulated Zircon hypersonic missile exercise in the Atlantic. pic.twitter.com/HyLz4MGhMf
— Conflict Report (@clashreport) January 25, 2023