Tsirkon anti-ship hypersonic cruise missiles
Russia includes hypersonic missile deployment
on Navy’s warships in new armament plan
December 19, 14:31UTC+3
The Russian Navy operates five Project 20380
corvettes and another five are under construction
MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. The deployment of Tsirkon new anti-ship hypersonic cruise missiles on the Russian Navy’s corvettes and frigates is envisaged by Russia’s state armament plan for 2018-2027, a source in the country’s defense industry told TASS on Tuesday.
"The naval component of the new state armament plan
prioritizes building Project 20385 and 20386 corvettes and Project 23350 and
23350M frigates with precision weapons that include Kalibr-NK cruise missiles
and Tsirkon hypersonic missiles," the source said.
TASS does not yet have an official confirmation of this
information.
The Russian Navy operates five Project 20380 corvettes
and another five are under construction. Russian shipbuilders have laid down
two corvettes of the modernized Project 20385 and a corvette of Project 20386.
Possibly, the order for these warships will be increased and their construction
will begin at the Yantar Shipyard in the western Kaliningrad Region (currently,
the corvettes are under construction at the St. Petersburg-based Northern Wharf
Shipyard and the Amur Shipyard in the Far East), the source said.
Four Project 22350 frigates under construction at the
Northern Wharf Shipyard are at various stages of their readiness.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced in April that the new
state armament program "sets the task of completing the development of
principally new types of hypersonic weapons and delivering them to the
troops." Russian senator and former commander of Russia’s Aerospace Force
Viktor Bondarev said in late November that Russia possessed Tsirkon hypersonic
missiles.
Russia’s new state armament plan stipulates allocating 19
trillion rubles ($324 billion) for weapons deliveries and 1 trillion rubles
($17 billion) for synchronizing these efforts. The new state armament plan
prioritizes developing nuclear deterrence forces and delivering precision
weapons to the troops.
According to the data available as of December 18, the
program’s final version had not yet been submitted to Russian President
Vladimir Putin for signing.
Tsirkon missiles
As another source in the Russian defense industry told
TASS earlier, Tsirkon missiles can be launched with the help of a universal
shipborne platform with ZS-14 launchers that are also used for Kalibr and Oniks
missiles. Precisely this platform is mounted on Project 20380 corvettes and
Project 22350 frigates.
According to public data, the Tsirkon has a firing range
of about 400 km and its maximum speed is indicated in the range of 4-6 Mach.
As a source in the defense industry told TASS, the
Tsirkon missile reached a speed of 8 Mach during flight tests in April.
During testing, this hypersonic missile broke all speed
records of its kind - it reached eight speeds of sound, or, if easier, flew
faster than 2.5 kilometers per second. It's faster than a bullet. If it reaches
an estimated range of 1,000 kilometers, then it will call into question the
entire American doctrine of global force transmission through shock-bearing
carrier groups. The range of US carrier aviation is about 800 kilometers.
"Simply speaking, with the advent of
hypersonic" Zircon "missiles on our cruisers, frigates and even
corvettes, it turns out that even a corvette with an eight-missile salvo can
seriously damage the American aircraft carrier. And frigate even in a single
form, if it came up, in a single quantity. If he approached the range of the
Zircon volley, he could destroy the aircraft carrier multipurpose group of the
United States of America, "explains Konstantin Sivkov, Corresponding
Member of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences, Doctor of
Military Sciences.
The American edition of National Interest admitted that
none of the fleet of means of protection from the "Zircon" for today
does not exist.
"Such weapons, combined with means to detect targets
in the open ocean, can turn aircraft carriers into graves worth billions of
dollars for thousands of American sailors," the newspaper writes.
The booster block takes Zircon to the desired orbit,
after which it accelerates to its maximum speed and moves to the target at a
height of 30-40 kilometers, where the air density is minimal. Radars at this
speed simply can not see it, anti-aircraft missile systems are useless. But,
according to experts, the overload is giant, the rocket is moving in a cloud of
plasma. We need super-strong materials, resistant to overloading electronics.
Translated by Google – Source: 1tv.ru
Related articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment