The Zircon (Graphic courtesy via Russian website.)
I don't know whether the future (late 2020s) Zircon missile proves Russia can solve the heat buildup barrier to sustained hypersonic flight in the dense atmosphere. Maybe it can become hypersonic in its endrun, maybe not.
India has been talking of a joint Russian hypersonic BrahMos-II (or BrahMos-2) missile project (maybe Indian version of the Zircon?) for years. See Submarine Matters' 2013 article.
Russia's latest submarines may become Zircon capable.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M22_Zircon. There are doubts about Zircon's effectivenes.
India has been talking of a joint Russian hypersonic BrahMos-II (or BrahMos-2) missile project (maybe Indian version of the Zircon?) for years. See Submarine Matters' 2013 article.
Russia's latest submarines may become Zircon capable.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M22_Zircon. There are doubts about Zircon's effectivenes.
Youtube originally uploaded October 11, 2018
---
Pete
Zircon is an improvement on Brahmos and Oniks but it does not revolutionize warfare. The next revolution will be artificial intelligence and collaborative autonomous drones, whether in the air, on water or undersea. It is going to be very hard, if not nearly impossible, to defeat these hordes of robots working together. That is a pretty scary picture.
ReplyDeleteI would bet that mach 7+ is at very high altitudes, may be 40km. At sea level, it is likely no more than Mach 2+.
KQN
There should also be doubts regarding its existence. Currently, it seems to be vaporware, with all graphic mockups of it being relabeled USAF X-51s. There's a lot of Internet hype about it from the usual Russian propaganda sources, and it's often discussed in the defence analysis communities, but there's no hard evidence as to its existence. The Russians haven't even publically tested an X-51 equivalent, so I'd be very wary about believing the information that is available.
ReplyDelete