Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that the 3M22 Zircon hypersonic missile had been used for the first time in battle against Ukraine. Russia claims that this missile can reach eight to nine times the speed of sound. If true, it will be the ‘fastest missile in the world’ to be used in war.
What is Hypersonic Missile?
- It is a missile that can travel at Mach-5 or faster, or at least five times the speed of sound.
- NOTE: Below such speeds, missile is characterized as subsonic or supersonic,
- Its flies at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles, making them harder to track.
- Their extreme speed and manoeuvrability make them very difficult to defend against.
- Two types of hypersonic weapons systems: (i) Hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) – It is a missile warhead which maneuver and glide through the atmosphere at high speeds after an initial ballistic launch phase. (ii) Hypersonic cruise missile – It uses air-breathing engines such as scramjets to reach high speeds
3M22 Zircon Hypersonic Missile
- It is a scramjet-powered, nuclear-capable hypersonic cruise missile developed in Russia.
- Speed: It is reportedly capable of flying with speeds up to Mach 9
- Operational Range: 1000 km
- It is a two-stage missile that uses solid fuel in the first stage and a scramjet motor in the second stage.
- It uses cooled supersonic combustion ramjet engines, which power combustion by compressing air flowing at supersonic speeds due to the missile’s forward motion.
- Guidance System: Active and Passive Radar Seeker.
- Plasma cloud: During hypersonic flight, this missile is completely covered by a plasma cloud that absorbs any rays of radio frequencies and makes the missile invisible to radars.