Ghost missile: Navy reserve captain tells about the features of the Russian “Zircon”
Recently, Russia struck Kyiv with a new hypersonic missile, the Zircon.
As explained by Captain Andriy Ryzhenko, 1st Rank of the Ukrainian Navy Reserve and former Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, it is a ghost missile.
“Zircon is a ghost rocket, there is a lot of talk, and they run their own commercials. It is known that this missile was fired by the newest frigate Admiral Gorshkov last year, when it was undergoing a state test in the Russian Federation, and this frigate will be based in the Northern Fleet,” he said on the Espresso TV channel.
Ryzhenko noted that the missile was located in a shipping container. In turn, it can fit the launcher of the Admiral Grigorovich frigate, which the occupiers use to strike at Ukraine.
The Zircon missiles can also be loaded onto ships already owned by the Russians, including the Buyan corvette. At the same time, the invulnerability of these missiles to air defense is questionable.
“This missile allegedly has a very high speed, and this speed does not allow or significantly reduces the ability of air defense systems to intercept them. There are also a lot of questions here, two such alleged launches by Ukraine have been identified – Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv, where these missile remnants were found. They were fired at the end of last year, at the beginning of this year, according to the label. Again, these are single items. No one knows how many such missiles there are and how effective they are,” he summarized.
3M22 Zircon is a Russian hypersonic anti-ship missile.
It was put into service on January 4, 2023.
This missile is planned to replace the P-700 Granit heavy anti-ship missile. It is assumed that the missile carriers will be Project 1144 tactical missile launchers and Project 949A Antey submarines
Approximate tactical and technical characteristics:
- range: data from different sources differ – about 450 km, 600 km, more than 1000 km;
- length: 8-9.5 m (based on the dimensions of the 3C14 launcher and missiles also launched from it (does not meet the requirements of the 3C14 launcher modification for launching a missile));
- speed: 8M;
- weight of the combat unit: 300-400 kg.
As a reminder, on February 7, rocket debris fell in the Dniprovsky district of Kyiv near a power line. It is unlikely that such a weapon was used against a conventional power line, so there are two possibilities: either the missile went off course or it was shot down.
