Russia’s Zircon Missile Relegates Carriers to Bombing Small Poor Countries

Pesky Russians went and built a Mach 8 anti-ship missile. "There is no technological solution for stopping this type of weapon in the US currently — the ramifications are colossal"

“The hyper-sonics are a revolution in military affairs, it changes the nature of warfare. Putin…was explicit — it is an event of a massive scale for Russia”

Judging by the stream of the news re: latest launch by Admiral Gorshkov of 3M22 Zircon, tests are very successful and as TASS reports (in Russian) another three launches from Gorshkov are planned by the end of the year. [Text is from October 2020.] This includes the strike at the target imitating aircraft carrier. This is only natural and easy to foresee. Somewhere in these launches is supposed to be an underwater launch from one of the Yasen-class (project 885) SSGNs, last time it was Severodvinsk, I believe, which was planned to be used as a platform for this launch.

As was expected, and guys on discussion boards already pointed out — there is a lot of butt-hurt and spin in Western media re: this launch. But then again, recall an initial reaction and then torturous (for the West) transition through the Kubler-Ross Grief Model. It ended up, of course, with the United States demanding to include these non-existent weapons to the START treaty.

I am on record, consistently, that moving into the hyper-sonic paradigm IS a real revolution, cannot get any more real than that. It is a revolution because it changes the nature of warfare. Putin, when speaking to Valery Gerasimov upon Zircon’s launch was explicit — it is an event of a massive scale for Russia. Well, for the world too. Another “expert”, Kyle Mizokami, writing about Zircon gets it all wrong.

Zircon is designed to use white-hot speed to hit targets before they can mount an effective defense. If a defending ship has its search radar mounted 100 feet off the ground and Zircon flies at an altitude of 1,000 feet (the real number might be much lower), the radar should detect the missile around 50 miles. At 1.7 miles per second, Zircon will close the gap in just 29 seconds, meaning the defending ship will need to detect, track, identify, launch defensive missiles, and achieve intercept in less than half a minute.

As any Russian anti-shipping (or land-attack) missile Zircon has a multi-variant flight paths and it can approach target on different trajectories, including “diving” into the cone of radar blindness, attacking almost vertically, similar to X-32. But this is beyond the point, any intercept of maneuvering M=8+ missile is not the matter of “29” seconds (granted it will be detected at all–and there are reasons to assume that even detecting this type of missile is extremely difficult), it is physically impossible even under the best of circumstances to do anything. The salvo of 4 or 6 Zircons — it is beyond the capability of the most advanced anti-air/missile systems to even react to and will remain so for a long period of time.

There is no technological solution for stopping this type of weapon in the US currently. Ramifications are colossal: generally, it will be a slow arduous reshaping of surface fleets towards smaller (frigate size) strike platforms. For the Russian Navy, Zircon unties hands in terms of Sea Control not only in littoral and Green Water zones but, upon necessity, in the remote or ocean zone, allowing to guard surface strike groups against any attempts of US Navy to bring to bear its CBGs’ firepower.

Thus aircraft carriers are finally removed to the niche where they belong–primarily a power projection tool against unstable entities. Obviously, a gigantic expenditure of building and maintaining any US Navy’s CBG  raises the serious question about the validity of the approach of having roughly $20 billion worth of hardware (CVN+escort ships+air wing) being commensurate with the rather very limited tasks this insanely expensive force can perform under present conditions. It is too expensive to bomb some shithole of a country somewhere, but attacking Russia? What a wonderful collection of expensive, prestigious targets.

With Russia having officially announced 7 subs and 5 frigates already planned for being armed with Zircon, plus having potentially other 6 modernized Udaloys (project 1155M) armed with a full version (1000+ km range), not to speak of a massive fleet of Russia’s small missile ships (pr. 21631 and 22800) slanted to receive Zircon Light (around 500+ kilometer range) version, one is forced to ask a question–What Now?

Now Marshal Billingslea will try to, yet again, pretend that Russia will negotiate on her newest arsenal and he will “press” Russians who, probably, will giggle in private about being “pressed”, into some sort of compliance with… whatever will be the flavor of the month in D.C. Of course, the most terrifying prospect for the US is the appearance of some sort of similar weapon in China’s hands. Not that it will happen necessarily, but who knows — Russia will not allow China to fall militarily if the shit will hit the fan (God forbids) and some crazies (and there is plenty of those) in D.C. will decide to finally direct America’s implosion outside by starting a “little victorious” war. Even old fool Kissinger noticed:

The US needs to rethink its hegemony and talk to China about imposing limits on their competition, because the alternative is the creation of conditions similar to those that preceded World War I, Henry Kissinger has warned. “Our leaders and their leaders have to discuss the limits beyond which they will not push threats, and how to define that,” said Kissinger, a top diplomat during the Nixon administration, who is credited with orchestrating US rapprochement with China. “You can say this is totally impossible, but if it is, we will slide into a situation similar to World War I,” he warned.

The United States simply has no good options currently. None. The less bad option, however, is to talk to Russians and not in terms of geopolitical BS and wet dreams that the United States, somehow, can convince Russia “to abandon” China — the US has nothing, zero, to offer Russia to do so. But at least Russians and Americans may finally settle peacefully this “hegemony” BS between themselves and then convince China to finally sit as a Big Three at the table and finally decide how to run the world. This is the only chance for the US to stay relevant in the new world. The US either negotiates and accepts limits of its influence or it will vanish one way or another. Anyway, there is a lot to ponder on this issue, because the world changes at an insane speed. Bad timing, I picked the wrong week to finish my third book, LOL.

God, do you remember those times when America was fun and laughed at itself sincerely. MAFA–Make America Fun Again, I kid, I kid;)

Source: Reminiscence of The Future

26 Comments
  1. Bert says

    Physics don’t play, and even the most advanced materials will have a hard time tolerating the temperatures generated by the air friction resulting from traveling at that speed and altitude. Plus, nothing ever goes wrong when launching rockets. The final thing is that the faster you go, the harder it is to steer, thus your control inputs will always be lagging. Over water, that’s not a problem, so much, over land, some buildings and geographical projections might exceed 1,000′ as well as small aircraft, downdrafts, etc. Your Mach 8 deathmissile could also well overshoot the target. The international warmongers love to create new defense investment opportunities and threaten each other. Keeps the old ball rolling…

    1. ken says

      Those are Russian engineers. They’re not as civilized as Americans. They still choose from the most capable people rather than some gender or color fantasy. I imagine they have worked out most of the problems you mention.

      1. Boink389 says

        How about maybe Russia does not allow Politburo members any say as to what company gets the contracts regardless of past performance due to massive kick-back schemes.
        How about maybe Russia will lock you up if you take the contract and deliver schitty product.

        The USA needs to cut congress out of the decision making on contract grants and if any of our Military Contract companies deliver schit, they pay the money back. F35=junk.
        (It is about procurement and money distribution. That is why everyone got pissed when Pres. Trump say we are out of Syria–both houses were pissed. Never fck with a man’s $$bags)

        The USA corruption forgot that not all governments are as corrupt as ours. They build schit that works and have now surpassed our tech in some to many areas.

        1. True True says

          Yet, he stole the oil and resources like every mob man does. Shhh, this comment section is the epitome of zionist decline and its lackey fodder.

      2. True True says

        Color Fantasy? Another cry baby in the works HAHAH Friendly reminder, zio money has bought most patents and inventions to be labeled “american” but you cretins can’t even produce top tier scientist let alone top world academic platforms.

      3. dave99 says

        You don’t understand America. The real technology is designed INSIDE the government, not by bought and paid for, bribed and threatened engineers in defense companies

    2. Death from above says

      Tell St. Peter that is if the US is stupid enough to test the waters.
      The faster you go the smaller the control surfaces need to be. And the ‘overshoot’ comment isn’t even worth shooting down.

    3. True True says

      Typical americunt cry baby wa-wa HAHAHAHAHA seems zio money and nazi technology can no longer keep up…once again showcasing the true incompetence of you cave apes.

    4. mijj says

      29 seconds to cross your fingers and hope

  2. yuri says

    Russian zirkon, avangard,kalibre hypersonics at up to mach 20 have already been demonstrated to be more accurate and longer range than any amerikan weapon—all of which are easily intercepted by Russian TOR and S-400

    1. dave99 says

      S-400? 13 year old junk?

      American TAW-50 antiques from 1980’s flew at Mach 50. We have MUCH BETTER things now. You have no idea what America can do.

      1. Juan says

        Yeah, A L I E N S

    2. Juan says

      Kalibr and Zircon are NOT hypersonic… Kalibr is a subsonic cruise missile (seen in use against Kafir forces in Syria), Zirkon is a supersonic cruise missile.

  3. ken says

    Ha! We’re the land of the free, home of the brave,,, the indispensable democracy. With our diverse universities and multigender military we’ll have a defense within months even sooner once we terminate all those MAGA terrorists and our cities are no longer locked down sometime maybe in 2025 after we defeat Covid 24………….

    1. True True says

      Wa wa wa Another Trumptard cry baby. you know the majority of you bulk are zionist christians, the dumbest of the dumb right? LOL

      1. freddie Toor says

        Christian zios are the most ignorant people on the planet, other zios are the most evil.

    2. David says

      Dream on Cowboy

    3. Juan says

      Most here are impervious to sarcasm or irony, or higher brain functions. Don’t bother LOL

  4. mijj says

    can the US ever solve the problem of China’s shameless alleviation of poverty and infrastructure building?

    1. Midwester says

      Outside of the major cities the poverty in China is crushing: Five year olds taking care of 80 year old grandparents while their parents slave in the cities and cannot earn enough to send home. China has major internal financial problems and is facing a demographic crisis in about 10 years due to the one child policy, the preponderance of males as compared to females, and the rapid aging of the population. So does the US. Both countries will likely go to war to divert attention from their internal problems. The US can’t solve it’s own problems, much less anyone else’s. The obvious bet would be Russia, with the massive natural resources at their disposal, but they have a major demographic problem – the largest landmass of any nation in the world, and a population of only 150 million. Europe is toast due to massive Islamic integration that resists enculturation. Unfortunately, the US is currently run by psychopaths. The future does not look rosy.

      1. Tony Rossin says

        China went up to a 2-child per family policy 3 years ago……and Uyghurs and Chinese rural folk are allowed to have 3 kids per family.

  5. dave99 says

    These articles about antique technology are just scare tactics by Russia. The TAW-50 ANTIQUE from the 1980’s can still defeat anything owned by the Russians or Chinese

    United States technology is 2,000 years ahead of the world

    Do you actually think that state of the art weapons systems are published in military magazines?? Do you actually think that the only weapons systems we have are the antiques we sell to the Arabs ? Do you actually think that primitive nuclear weapons, junk hypersonic missiles, jets and other assorted scrap metal can have any effect whatsoever on a ship, base or city protected by a Tesla Shield?

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  6. Jack Heginbotham says

    The “Reset” requires a NEW Global Currency. The petrodollar went out of control after 9/11 and now thousands of trillions of them exist electronically. The Planned Pandemic set the stage for the transfer to a new fiat and a conflict between Russia & the USA would set it in stone. The US War would be blamed for the death of the dollar, its citizens forced to pay reparations for worthless dollars overseas and the IMF & China could introduce the New China Central Bank/IMF “Golden Yaun”. We can only hope the Master Race stops fanning the flames of a US/Russia Military Conflict in Syria…. and if not: enough citizens say NO MORE WARS!

    For several decades, Americans have been conditioned to discount Russian Media as pure propaganda. Most would not give this article a second glance. They have also been conditioned to think that we are invincible. We have won every “War” we fought in for over 100 years.Most don’t realize that a War with Russia (or China) would be unlike any we fought before. They could bring the battle to us.

    These are definitely exciting times to be alive with our eyes wide open

  7. Jerry Hood says

    The Russian Avangard reaches speed of 26 Machs! The Poseidon drone subs are 500 miles from the US coast with multiple warheads…And the ” great” USAtan shall turn into ash in just ONE HOUR!!!

    1. Jerry Hood says

      Remember,in the center of the Two headed eagle of Russia is ST.GEORGE-THE DRAGON SLAYER ON WHITE/ CHRIST/ HORSE OF APOCALYPSE,SPEARING THE USAtan!!!

  8. Juan says

    The inflatable autopilot would be a better POTUS. Also less pervy.

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