Moscow: Russian Defence Ministry announced on Thursday that it had carried out another successful test of its Zircon hypersonic cruise missile, one the latest additions to the country’s arsenal of weapons called ‘invincible’ by President Vladimir Putin. The military said that it has fired the Zircon missile from the Admiral Gorshkov warship and hit a test target in Russia’s Arctic waters.
‘The shot was conducted on a sea target in the waters of the White Sea’, defence ministry said in an official statement. It added that the missile eliminated its target with a ‘direct hit’. The Zircon had already undergone several tests in recent years, including another launch from the Admiral Gorshkov and from a submerged submarine. The Zircon seems ready to join Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles that were taken into service in 2019 and the air-launched Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles, in Russia’s arsenal.
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Hypersonics can travel more than five times the speed of sound and manoeuvre in mid-flight, making them harder to track and intercept than traditional projectiles. Moscow in recent years has hiked up the development of weapons that it hopes to gain an edge in any arms race with the United States, at a time of growing tensions with the West.
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