The Russian military announced on Saturday that it had successfully carried out another test launch of the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile, as Moscow steps up its offensive in Ukraine.
The Zircon missile was fired from the Admiral Gorchkov frigate in the Barents Sea at a target in Arctic White Sea waters, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
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 Admiral Gorchkov frigate and from a submerged submarine.
With a maximum range of about 1,000 kilometers, it must equip 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”.
