Zircon

Russia’s ship- and coast-launched scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile — a carrier-killer with nuclear capability, used sparingly against Ukraine since 2024.

Overview

The 3M22 Zircon (Tsirkon) is a Russian scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile designed for anti-ship strike against high-value NATO surface combatants and employed in a land-attack role against Ukraine. Launched from vertical cells aboard frigates and submarines, or from coastal launchers in occupied Crimea, it combines supersonic-combustion ramjet propulsion with a traditionally compact airframe, delivering a small warhead at speeds that severely compress defender reaction times. Analysts regard the weapon as a genuine technological achievement in hypersonic cruise, yet its operational impact has been limited by scarce inventory, modest payload, and demonstrated susceptibility to terminal-phase interception.

Development

NPO Mashinostroyeniya built the 3M22 on Soviet hypersonic groundwork—the GELA/Kh-90 experimental vehicle line—to replace the P-700 Granit as the navy’s heavy anti-ship weapon. Concept work existed from about 2011, and flight-testing began around 2015–2016, with Russian-reported milestones of Mach 8 in 2017 and ten flight tests by 2018, according to Wikipedia. Putin publicly specified Mach 9 and 1,000 km range in February 2019, figures that the RUSI noted sit uneasily with the physics of a missile no larger than the Oniks, given that speed and range are inversely correlated for a fixed airframe; RUSI also highlighted an improbably failure-free public test record while judging the missile, on balance, a real operational capability. State trials proceeded from the frigate Admiral Gorshkov (first launch January 2020) and the submarine Severodvinsk (October 2021); serial deliveries were announced in December 2022 and the type formally entered Russian service on 4 January 2023.

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