(Moscow) The Russian army announced on Saturday that it had successfully carried out a new test launch of the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile, as Moscow intensifies its offensive in Ukraine.
Posted yesterday at 7:31 a.m.
The Zircon missile was fired from the frigate Admiral Gorshkovin the Barents Sea, to a target in the waters of the White Sea, in the Arctic, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a press release.
The target located a thousand kilometers away “has been successfully targeted”, according to the same source.
The firing was carried out as part of Russian “tests of new weapons”, the statement added.
The first official firing of a Zircon dates back to October 2020, when President Vladimir Putin hailed a “great event”. Other tests have taken place since, in particular from the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and from a submerged submarine.
With a maximum range of around 1,000 kilometres, it must equip the surface ships and submarines of the Russian fleet.
Russia, which launched an offensive in Ukraine on February 24, announced in March that it had used hypersonic missiles there – “Kinjal”, a combat recourse which seemed to be a first, Moscow having never mentioned of the use of this type of weapon, except for tests.
The Kinjal hypersonic ballistic missiles and the Zircon cruise missiles belong to a family of new weapons developed by Russia and which Mr Putin describes as “invincible”.