3M22 Tsirkon Russian Medium-Range Cruise Missile

The 3M22 Zircon, also spelled Tsirkon (Russian: Циркон, NATO reporting name: SS-N-33) is a scramjet powered maneuvering anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile developed by Russia. Zircon is believed to be a maneuvering, winged hypersonic cruise missile with a lift-generating center body. A booster stage with solid-fuel engines accelerates it to supersonic speeds, after which a scramjet motor with liquid-fuel in the second stage accelerates it to hypersonic speeds. The missile represents a further development of the HELA (Hypersonic Experimental Flying Vehicle) developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya that was on display at the 1995 MAKS air show. Zircon can travel at a speed of Mach 9. Such high speeds would likely create a cloud of plasma around the missile, absorbing any radio waves and making the missile virtually invisible to radars (plasma stealth). This has led to concerns that it could penetrate existing naval defense systems. Zircon exchanges information in flight and can be controlled by commands if necessary. Zircon will be first deployed with the Kirov-class battlecruisers Admiral Nakhimov and Pyotr Velikiy after 2020. These ships will have their P-700 Granit anti-ship missiles replaced with the 3S-14 universal VLS cells capable of carrying the Oniks, Kalibr and Zircon missiles; each vessel is to be equipped with 72 such missiles. After completion of their refit, the ships could carry 40–80 anti-ship missiles of different types. Another platforms is to likely include Admiral Grigorovich class and Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates, as well as various guided missile corvettes of the Russian Navy, including Buyan class, Karakurt class or Gremyashchiy class, mainly due to the installation of the compatible 3S-14 vertical launchers. In November 2017, Colonel General Viktor Bondarev revealed the Zircon missile was already in service with the Russian Armed Forces. On 20 February 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated the missile is capable to accelerate up to Mach 9 and destroy both sea-going and land targets within 1,000 km (540 nmi; 620 mi) distance. Reports suggest that after the fielding of the 3M22 to naval forces, production of a lighter version of the Tsirkon will be developed to be deployed from strategic bombers. US reports state that the most likely bomber to carry the airborne version of the 3M22 will be the Tupolev Tu-160/M/M2 "Blackjack"