On Wednesday, October 7, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces - First Deputy Defense Minister of Russia Valery Gerasimov reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the successful tests of the Zircon hypersonic missile.

This was reported by the Kremlin press service.

During the meeting, which took place in the videoconference mode, Gerasimov said that the day before at 7:15 am the frigate "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov", being in the waters of the White Sea, within the framework of flight tests, for the first time fired a hypersonic cruise missile "Zircon" at a sea target, located in the Barents Sea.

“The launch tasks have been completed.

The shooting was recognized as successful.

A direct hit of the missile on the target was recorded.

The missile's flight range was 450 kilometers, the maximum altitude was 28 kilometers.

The flight time is four and a half minutes.

A hypersonic speed of over Mach 8 has been achieved, ”Gerasimov said.

According to him, after the completion of state tests, it is planned to equip submarines and surface ships with the Zircon complex.

  • Vladimir Putin during a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces - First Deputy Defense Minister of Russia Valery Gerasimov

  • © Alexey Druzhinin / RIA Novosti

In turn, the head of state congratulated all those involved in the work on "Zircon" and thanked them for the work done.

The President expressed the hope that all specialists involved in the rearmament of the country's army will continue to work effectively and persistently in this direction.

“The work on the Zircon system and the stage that you have just reported, the stage of successful testing of this missile, is a great event not only in the life of the Armed Forces, but also in the whole of Russia, the whole country, since the equipping of our Armed Forces is and the fleet - with the latest, truly unparalleled weapons systems in the world, it certainly ensures the defense capability of our state in the long term, ”Putin stressed.

As the Russian leader noted, a large stage has been overcome in equipping the Russian Armed Forces with the latest systems.

“For this work - we know about it - a huge work of our scientists, designers, talented workers, military specialists,” stated the head of state.

In addition, the Ministry of Defense published a video that captures the moment of launch and the first seconds of the rocket's flight.

In July, the Russian defense department reported on the successful completion of tests of the Zircon hypersonic missile.

It was noted that during the launches, unique tactical and technical characteristics were confirmed in terms of range and accuracy of fire, as well as flight speed.

According to the Ministry of Defense, the Zircon is intended to arm nuclear submarines of projects 885, 885M, 949AM and surface ships of projects 22350, 23560, as well as to re-equip the cruiser of project 1144.2 Admiral Nakhimov and frigates of the Admiral Gorshkov class.

In addition, Vladimir Putin in October 2019, while visiting Kaliningrad and inspecting the Project 20385 Thundering corvette, said that this warship could receive the Zircons.

The arrival of missiles in the formations and units of the Navy is scheduled for 2021-2022.

Almost nothing is known about the technical parameters of the Russian 3M22 Zircon hypersonic missile, but Putin named some of the characteristics back in 2019.

So, the projectile flight speed will be Mach 9 (speeds of sound), the range will be over 1,000 km.

The missile will be able to destroy both sea and ground targets.

In September 2020, the President of the Russian Federation, in a conversation with the honorary general director of the military-industrial complex NPO Mashinostroyenia, Herbert Efremov, said that the Russian army possesses the most modern weapons, which are significantly superior in power, speed and accuracy to previous and existing models.

According to the head of state, such a situation in modern history is unique for Russia, which for decades "had to be in the role of catch-up."

“No one in the world has such a weapon, at least not yet,” Putin said.

In addition to the Zircon sea-based hypersonic ammunition, the Russian leader indicated among the breakthrough developments the Avangard hypersonic complex, the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater robotic drone, the Dagger Kh-47M2 aircraft complex, and the Petrel cruise missile of unlimited range.

“We had to create this weapon in response to the US deployment of a strategic missile defense system, which in the future would be able to actually neutralize, zero all our nuclear potential,” the Russian president stated.