RUSSIA: Test of the Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile

On 6 October, the Russian navy released the Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile for the first time from aboard the frigate ADMIRAL GORSCHKOW (Project 22350) and fired it at eight times the speed of sound over the maximum distance of 450 kilometres at a target in the Barents Sea. The entire sequence took less than five minutes. This meant that it was not even necessary to use the 24-hour time buffer in case something went wrong. Army General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of Defence, was able to present the news of the successful shot to his President in time for his 68th birthday the following day. The system will subsequently be installed on nuclear submarines of the YASEN class (Project 885M) and trialled from there. The classes GORSCHKOW (5 frigates, project 22350), LIDER (12 cruisers, project 23560, planned), KIROW (2 cruisers, project 1144.2) and, in addition to the six YASEN submarines (SEWERODWINSK, project 885/885M), the eight ANTYEY-class boats (OSCAR-II, project 949A) are also to be equipped with Tsirkon.