Russia Announces ‘Successful’ Test of Hypersonic Zircon Missile, Launched from Warship

Russia Announces ‘Successful’ Test of Hypersonic Zircon Missile, Launched from Warship

While America’s military leadership has focused on diversity, inclusion, and equity, Russia took advantage of a special opportunity to include some diversity in its weapons options.

Its military officials have announced a ‘successful’ test of the 6,670mph hypersonic Zircon missile.

Defense officials said in a statement the missile was fired from the Northern Fleet frigate Admiral Gorshkov while sailing in the White Sea.

The missile’s flight “corresponded to the specified parameters” and successfully hit a marine target located nearly 250 miles away, they said.

The same ship and crew also successfully performed a Zircon test firing at a naval target two weeks ago, according to the Northern Fleet.

The Kremlin announced last month the missile was successfully test-fired from an underwater position for the first time.

The frigate Admiral Gorshkov performed another test firing with a hypersonic missile Zircon#MinistryOfDefence #MOD #Zircon pic.twitter.com/wEUKDDXMUi

— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) November 29, 2021

Russia has also announced it has started serial production of these units.

The ‘unstoppable’ weapon is being rushed into manufacture even before the end of state trials, reported TASS.

The go-ahead for full-scale production at a top-secret plant at Reutovo, near Moscow, follows recent ‘successful’ tests of the Mach-9 capable missile which Russia boasts will evade all Western defences.

‘Serial production of Tsirkon missiles is underway at NPO Mashinostroyenia (plant), although state trials of this product’s surface launches will continue,’ said an informed source.

Vladimir Putin has ordered the missile to be deployed next year by the Russian Navy boasting that it is ‘truly unparalleled…in the world’.

As an additional bonus, Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko agreed to join forces with Russia in the event of a new war in Europe.

The West realises that if it triggers a conflict on the Russian border, Minsk will not stand aside, he said.

‘They understand perfectly well that if they once again start a war in the Donbass (eastern Ukraine) or somewhere else on the border with Russia, Belarus will not stand aside. And it’s clear whose side Belarus will take.

‘They understand it, which is why they have begun to strengthen their northern border, the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, although there is no reason to do it at the moment.

How is the Biden administration responded to this development? While there is no response yet, the missile launch, administration officials are pushing back on sanctions against Russia suggests Putin does not need to worry.

The Biden administration, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is pushing back on Congress passing tougher sanctions against a Russian energy project even as President Biden is coming under pressure to get tougher on Moscow.

The administration on Monday imposed new sanctions on a ship involved the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a top strategic priority of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But Biden’s team is leery of tougher action on the project for fear of antagonizing Germany, an important European ally in the fight to address climate change and limit China’s growing global influence.

Nord Stream 2 is an important part of Putin’s effort to exert economic and military pressure on Ukraine because it would allow Russia to send gas to Europe without going through the country.

Meanwhile, between breaks from Critical Race Theory training, the US military may find time to launch its version…in two years.

The U.S. is still a “year or two” away from fielding its own hypersonic weapon, said Gillian Bussey, director of the Department of Defense’s Joint Hypersonics Transition office, earlier this month. The Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon will be the first U.S. hypersonic system “that was actually be deployed and … ready for use,” while the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike System is not far behind, according to Bussey.

There is a small ray of sunshine in this gloomy bit of news. It appears there may be less reason to worry than the news may suggest.

Hypersonic missiles pose the same threat as regular missiles if the underlying defense system can’t stop either, thus there seems to be little need for severe concern in this growing hypersonic arms race.

It’s also important when discussing the hypersonic arms race that we make sure we put it in the correct light. While Russia and China appear to be far ahead of the United States in terms of hypersonic missiles, the reality is that those countries aren’t necessarily shooting for the same goal, which makes it hard to characterize the hypersonic arms race as a “race”.

Races typically can only be measured when all competitors are shooting for one goal, such as the space race of the Cold War which aimed to land a man on the moon.

The hypersonic arms race is, in reality, a bunch of superpowers chasing after their own version of what they believe will be the most strategically important weapons system. The US, for example, while still a few years off from hypersonic capabilities, has largely focused on hypersonic non-nuclear missiles, which infers that the missiles would need to be far more accurate than nuclear counterparts. This may explain why the US’s technology is taking longer to develop.

Hopefully, the American public will elect new executive leadership that genuinely has the national security of this country as a priority rather than social justice inanity before these developments become something to worry about honestly.

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