Russia Successfully Test Fires Zircon Hypersonic Missile

What is the News?

Russia has carried out a successful test of its Zircon hypersonic cruise missile.

What is the Zircon Missile?

Zircon is a Hypersonic Cruise Missile developed by Russia. It has been called as one of the invincible missiles by the Russian President.

What are the special features of Zircon Missile?

The missile flies with an advanced fuel that the Russians say gives it a range of up to 1,000 kilometers. 

The missile speed is also so fast that the air pressure in front of the weapon forms a plasma cloud as it moves, absorbing radio waves and making it practically invisible to active radar systems.

Note: The Zircon will join the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle that was put into service in 2019 and the air-launched Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles in Russia’s arsenal.

Significance for India

This successful test of Zircon is being termed as good news for India as it will hasten the development of the delayed BrahMos-II hypersonic cruise missile, a joint India-Russia project.

Source: This post is based on the article “Russia Successfully Test Fires Zircon Hypersonic Missile” published in NDTV on 18th Nov 2021.