Russia completes testing of hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles

Russia has completed the testing of hypersonic Zirconcruise missiles from submarines, and their acceptance into service is underway. This was reported by the general director and chief designer of NPO Mashinostroyeniya, Alexander Leonov, to journalists from RIA Novosti.

"We have conducted the tests. There is a whole program for their acceptance into service, but it is absolutely not related to Zircon itself. We do not need any tests for this. The ships are being equipped in the order established by the Ministry of Defense," Leonov said in the sidelines of the Academic Readings on Cosmonautics.

He responded to the question of when the flight tests of Zircon cruise missiles from a submarine carrier would resume.

Zircon is the world's first hypersonic cruise missile of naval basing, with a flight speed reaching nine times the speed of sound. These missiles are already being equipped on Project 22350 frigates, the latest multipurpose Project 885M Yasen-class submarines,as well as the missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov and modernized Project 949A Antey submarines. It is also expected that Zircons will be equipped on all new and under-construction frigates and corvettes.