State Trials of Russia’s Zircon Hypersonic Missile in May

Russia’s Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic missile has completed flight trials and could undergo state trials in May or June.

“Zircon’s flight trials from the Admiral Gorshkov have completed successfully. A total of four launches have been made. All missiles hit the ‘bullseye’,” a source in the military-industrial complex told TASS Thursday.

The NPO Mashinostroyeniya, the developer and producer of Zircon missiles, refrained from commenting on this information.

Two launches of the missile from an underwater carrier will take place this year. State trials of the same is scheduled for 2022.

In October 2020, the lead frigate of Project 22350 Admiral Gorshkov fired a Zircon for the first time at a sea target located in the Barents Sea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had stated in 2019 that the Zircon is capable of Mach 9 speed and its striking range capability can exceed 1,000 km and that there were plans to deploy Zircon on warships built for launching Kalibr cruise missiles.

Project 22350 frigates are multifunctional warships capable of effectively fighting surface, air and underwater adversaries, as well as striking ground targets at a distance of over 1,500km.