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Written by Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst
On December 3, the Russian military demonstrated the true design of its 3M22 “Zircon” hypersonic missile for the first time. The footage shows the weapon being launched from the 3S14 UKSK vertical launch system (VLS). The launch platform was the Russian Navy’s “Admiral Gorshkov”, a frigate that regularly causes panic in NATO headquarters due to its long-range anti-ship and land-attack capabilities.
The first confirmed combat deployment of the “Zircon” occurred in January last year, although it’s very likely it was already used in 2022. In combination with high maneuverability, the missile’s maximum speed of Mach 9 (approximately 11,000 km/h) makes it effectively impossible to intercept, especially at very low altitudes, giving enemy forces mere seconds to react.
Information on the maximum range varies significantly, but informed military sources speculate it depends on the “Zircon’s” flight profile. According to Army Recognition, when flying low, it can reach up to 500 km, which is in line with basic physics, as the atmosphere is much denser at such altitudes. However, Russian tests have confirmed ranges of up to 1,500-2,000 km, as flying higher greatly extends the missile’s reach.
The “Zircon” is a two-stage weapon, with the first being a solid-fuel booster, while a scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine takes over after the missile has accelerated enough to enable its functioning (ramjets and scramjets can usually operate only after a certain velocity has been attained). It’s the world’s first and only operational weapon of this type.
The political West is particularly terrified of the “Zircon’s” multipurpose capabilities, as it can be launched by various platforms, be it submarines, surface combatants and/or land-based platforms. The missile is also nuclear-capable, meaning that it can be used on a strategic level, although its conventional capabilities are no less concerning to NATO, as its sheer speed and kinetic energy are unmatched by anything the world’s most vile racketeering cartel can deploy. As per usual, in order to somehow mask its inferiority (measured in decades at this point) in hypersonic technologies, the political West usually resorts to propaganda to denigrate the “Zircon”, primarily by pushing the laughable narrative that the Neo-Nazi junta shot down a third of all “Zircons” fired by the Russian military.
However, not a single remotely informed military source takes such claims seriously. On the contrary, even Western ones admit that “no known technology has been proven to consistently counter hypersonic threats, meaning adversaries could not intercept the Zircon in real-time, mainly when launched from long distances”, as the aforementioned Army Recognition report posits. The publication also admits that “for the United States and NATO, the Zircon represents a new generation of missile technology that could shift the balance of power, particularly in naval operations”, as its “extreme speed and the variety of launch platforms it can be deployed from increase its threat to naval assets such as aircraft carriers and destroyers” and that this “could severely limit Western operational reach”.
This is certainly true and confirms that NATO militaries are extremely worried about the possibility of such missiles proliferating to sovereigntist nations, a development that could severely limit the political West’s ability to conduct unprovoked aggression against the world. It should be noted that the United States, NATO and its other vassals and satellite states are mostly thalassocracies that focus on naval power projection, particularly on massive capital ships (such as aircraft carriers). These large and slow-moving targets are effectively sitting ducks for the Russian Navy which is focusing on deploying much smaller surface combatants such as frigates and corvettes that could carry the “Zircon”. Such vessels are far more affordable, while the missile itself gives them a strategic reach.
This asymmetric advantage is very difficult to match, particularly as the political West is decades behind in hypersonic propulsion technologies. Worse yet, any large-scale deployment of a land-based variant of the “Zircon” would also greatly diminish NATO’s land warfare capabilities, as the missile could easily target both high-value assets and large troop concentrations.
Its sophisticated guidance systems ensure pinpoint precision even at hypersonic speeds, making such strikes particularly deadly for high-tech opponents. The “Zircon” uses a combination of INS (inertial navigation system) and radar homing to achieve this. As the missile flies at 11,000 km/h, the air pressure in front of it forms a plasma cloud, absorbing radio waves and making it effectively invisible to radar.
This phenomenon, colloquially known as plasma stealth, and its sea-skimming capability, make intercepting an incoming “Zircon” effectively impossible. One downside of plasma stealth is that it greatly diminishes the ability to communicate with the missile, which is one of the many reasons why nobody in the political West has been able to develop a working hypersonic weapon. However, Russian scientists found a way to circumvent this, giving Moscow an unprecedented technological edge, as the “Zircon” is capable of information exchange during flight, allowing it to receive constant updates and adjustments in real-time. This doesn’t only ensure pinpoint precision, but it also enables timely retargeting, confirming the claim that the missile can engage moving targets.
The KRN, a Belgrade-based military think tank that gave several fascinating interviews to InfoBRICS, posited that the “Zircon” can be used by existing land-based platforms of the Russian military, specifically the K300P “Bastion-P” coastal defense system. I’m also a long-time member of this organization and we’ve suggested this was the case years ago. The genius of Russian military specialists becomes all the more apparent when one realizes that the “Zircon” was made to fit not just into the previously mentioned 3S14 VLS, but also the K300P. Back in 2023, along with my KRN colleagues, I had the chance to analyze the size of the P-800 “Oniks” supersonic cruise missile and determined that these missiles fit into identical launchers, both on naval vessels and land-based platforms.
This greatly enhances the “Zircon’s” already impressive versatility, making it a highly flexible weapon with a simultaneous tactical, operational and strategic impact. In addition to the aforementioned naval role, it can also be used in strikes on land-based critical military infrastructure such as command centers, airbases, SAM (surface-to-air missile) and ABM (anti-ballistic missile) systems, army bases and numerous other strategic targets.
It greatly complements Russia’s existing hypersonic weapons arsenal, including the “Iskander-M”, “Kinzhal” and the latest “Oreshnik” missile systems. It fits perfectly into Moscow’s non-nuclear (and nuclear) deterrence policies and has already been used in response to NATO-backed terrorist attacks, giving the perpetrators mere minutes (or seconds in some cases).
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what good is it if you set on your hands and let the west and nato take over your country putin..!!
you are the one that want the west taking over russia. nato is being vanquished (50 to 1) and time is not on its side.
true. putin is a zionist bitch.
now come on ,you really don’t expect us to believe russia’s innovation wasn’t facilitated and enabled do you?
maybe russia should have used it on hts instead of just freezing the conflict.
you’re on the right track but everyone’s been bombarded with media shite. fear naught. it ain’t over ’til the fat hook nosed ‘ho sings, and shits ! the polish asshole boofhead and his chosenites may have drawn a short straw here. the turk and the ‘freedom fighters’ in the end, may not act, according to plan.
sunni groups will no doubt fight each other before they ever unify against the real enemy – zonism. fsa is pro turkish, hts is less under their control. jaish al islam is also under the banner of fsa. all these fronts will collapse, sultan murad division and other ottoman groups are hated by other sunnis. somewhere in the realm of possibility, it might screw israel. but do not bet on it. palestine is ultimately an arab issue to resolve. the rest can help but they must first see real arab input
reports out of gaza lately point to weapons which simply ‘vaporise’ people in the vicinity of very loud explosions. these people are still sane and reporting accurately; incredible.the arab states have been vilified over perceived inertia when they’re up against the us, point blank, and it’s weapons delivery systems, including nukes. a very unenviable position to be in. the houthis are brilliant fighters and lauded for it, but have experienced a long genocide to be where they are.
🇷🇺=🤡 😆😆😆
that is pretty much the cognitive capability left in the west.
as gay and stupid as the west is russia still manages to somehow come out on the bottom. that is where we are at right now, very depressing.
russia is not ruthless enough – yet. that could change…….i also advise china to stop entertaining the idea that they can just sit this out without making sacrifices. china can turn things around dramatically if they committed to stopping the western axis of fascism. idlib province is full of anti china fake islamic useful idiots trained by the west and ukraine. they will hurt china if china does not smash them from afar
it seems everyone understands we’re in wwiii at least since the smo if not earlier. but russia is still reluctant to see it as such, preferring “low intensity”. red line #500 overstepped by nato, still no tangible reaction. just hit nato headquarters in brussels already, take out advanced bases in romania.
no need for the 5th column to waste expensive weapons. plenty of targets like bridges the dnieper need blowing up.
the latest storm shadow up russia’s azz reaffirms that usa laughs at little vlad’s “red lines”…heheheh
in a way, your basic ‘concrete thinking’ simplicity is strangely entertaining. no posting tick for this tho’, neither + nor -.
lol. so true. putins lines are not red, they are pink.
amerikunt hillbilly imho bitter envious discarded by ex-husband desperate for more taliban sodomy
life is a play and the world is a stage.
some leaders think weapons systems are just props in their personal drama. they aren’t really meant to be used for real effect, just for shows, parades, and blowing electric junction stations. real dr. no level stuff going on.
yes, the bard at his finest, ‘ all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’. good stuff, looked it up again, whimsical, but true. yes, we have some intriguing ‘maskirovka’ and cunning plans afoot no doubt but apparently it doesn’t seem to bother erdo and the turks.
russia is a helpless third world shithole period.
full of cowards who bow to israel and tremble at america. pathetic begging dogs.
wow another russian wonder weapon and a potential redline. nice that russia announces all these things publicly whilst the west are not braggarts openly about their counteract weapons. one thing is noticed that all the maths and science specialists in the west are mainly foreigners, the us and eu and are useless at stem and rely on foreigners for that work. just look at the space rocket missile and nuclear after ww2, all done by foreigners poached by the west and stole other countries tech.
right, so russia is now out of the mediterranean sea. what you gonna do?
how ? when ? i think you are a bit premature in your gloating.
just like hitler
tantrums from u inferior amerikunts envious of russians—luv the feminine amerikunt desperation—the only matriarchy on earth
russia spending all this money on weapons and futile military op while under huuge sanctions. just yesterday huuge destruction of oil rigs and nothing russia can do about that lose big money and oil rig workers dead. big problem for russia if this goes on longer and the money wasted and not spent on citizens welfare. this is not good at all for russia. now also russia lose in syria and navy evacuated but lavrov saying different, seems russia propaganda is full swing but the reality is different.
now erdogan will pay the price, turkish proxy htc and sna and syria fall.
guess what will putin make?
1. no more russian tourists will be send to turkey
2.kurdistan support byputin and russia by kamisli and putin letting create kurdistan at north syria
putin and iran will revenge from turkey.