Two days ago, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the suspension of the New Start Treaty, we wrote that this decision paved the way for a future build-up of Russia's operational nuclear arsenal, the latter being today today the only asset remaining in the hands of the head of the Kremlin, to justify Russia's status as a superpower on the international scene, while its conventional forces have been very severely reduced by a year of war in Ukraine. It only took two days, and despite the skeptical comments of some journalists on this subject, for the…
Read the articleTag: Missile 3M22 Tzirkon
China has developed an engine capable of reaching Mach 9 with aviation fuel
Hypersonic speeds have for some years been a priority area of research for all of the world's major armies. The announcement, in 2017, of the entry into service of the Russian hypersonic airborne missile Kinzhal, and a few months later, of the hypersonic glider Avangard, had the effect of an electric shock in the West as in the world, while no existing anti-missile system was then able to oppose vectors moving at such speeds and capable of manoeuvring. Since then, we have witnessed an explosion in terms of the program, the United States, the Europeans, the Chinese and the Indians having all announced significant advances in this area. Several hypersonic systems…
Read the articleRussia has tested its 3M22 Tzirkon hypersonic anti-ship missile at its maximum range of 1000 km
Hypersonic weapons, and more particularly the Russian hypersonic armies, have fueled numerous debates for several years, whether it concerns the vulnerability of large naval units as systems capable or not of opposing such missiles evolving beyond of Mach 5. Since the announcement of the entry into service of the Kinzhal airborne ballistic missile in 2019, Moscow has exploited this concern, which is very perceptible in the West, often relayed by the media lacking perspective on the subject. However, the Russian Navy has just lifted one of the doubts that have been hovering for several months regarding the announced performance of its hypersonic anti-ship missile 3M22 Tzirkon, by announcing…
Read the articleThe United States fears the trivialization of Russian and Chinese “blackmail to deterrence”
Barely a few days after the start of military operations in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin ordered, in a very publicized manner, his Chief of Staff and his Minister of Defense to put the Russian strategic forces on high alert, in response the first round of sanctions from the United States and Europe against Russia in response to this aggression. Since then, Moscow has repeatedly repeated its strategic threats in an attempt to prevent the West from interfering in the ongoing conflict, and to provide growing support to the Ukrainians. If this did not prevent the United States, Great Britain and many European countries from delivering armaments...
Read the articleThe successor to the Harpoon anti-ship missile will be hypersonic
Entered into service in 1977, the AGM-184 Harpoon anti-ship missile was produced in more than 7500 units by MacDonnel Douglas and then Boeing Defense, and used by more than thirty navies and air forces around the world, never yielding in this field than the famous missiles of the Exocet family designed by NordAviation/Aerospatiale and entered into service in 1975. These two missiles not only shared similar performances and flight profiles, they also have in common an extraordinary longevity, as both the American and French missile continue to be produced and exported almost 50 years after their entry into service. However, for…
Read the articleDefense against hypersonic missiles is structured in the West
Since the entry into service of the Kh47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic airborne missile in 2018, and even more so with the upcoming arrival of the 3M22 Tzirkon hypersonic anti-ship missile, both of Russian origin, the fear of seeing these munitions permanently neutralize naval power West has been widely relayed in the media. It is true that due to their speed, their low trajectory, and for some, their ability to maneuver in the descending phase, these weapons undermine the Western anti-missile shield, based on THAAD and SM-3 kinetic impactor missiles. In addition, the anti-aircraft missiles currently in service, such as the SM-2, the Aster 30 or the Sea Ceptor, have…
Read the articleThese 7 technologies that will revolutionize the battlefield by 2040
If the last years of the cold war were the occasion of numerous and important technological advances in the field of armaments, with the arrival of cruise missiles, stealth planes and ships and advanced command and geolocation systems, this dynamic came to a complete halt with the collapse of the Soviet bloc. In the absence of a major and technologically advanced adversary, and because of the numerous asymmetrical campaigns in which the armed forces took part, very few significant advances were recorded from the technological point of view between 1990 and 2020, with the notable exception of the generalization of aerial drones of all types. But with the emergence, since the beginning of…
Read the articleDefense technologies that made the news in 2021
Despite the crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, the news in 2021 was often marked by certain defense technologies, in a geopolitical context of growing tensions and critical crises. From Australia's surprise cancellation of the order for French-built conventionally powered submarines to switch to US-British nuclear attack submarines, to hypersonic missiles; from underwater drones to China's new fractional orbital bombardment system; these defense technologies, long in the background of the world media scene, found themselves in the news, and sometimes in the headlines during this year. In this two-part article,…
Read the articleRussia develops "light" airborne version of Tzirkon anti-ship hypersonic missile
Since the entry into service of the hypersonic missile Kh47m2 Kinzhal within the Russian air force in late 2017, the country has taken a comfortable lead vis-à-vis other nations, and in particular the United States, in this domain. And the conclusive tests of the 3M22 Tzirkhon hypersonic anti-ship system conducted in recent months have only reinforced this fact, especially since unlike the Kinzhal, the Tzirkon uses a new Scramjet-type engine for its propulsion. It is precisely on the basis of a brand new scramjet designated “Object 70” (Izdelie 70), more compact than that used on board the Tzirkon, that the engineers…
Read the article3M22 Tzirkon hypersonic missile tested from Severodvinsk nuclear submarine
While the Tzirkon 3M22 hypersonic anti-ship missile test campaign was crowned with success in September with the 10th successful firing from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate after a campaign started in February 2020, the Russian authorities announced that the tests of implementation of the new missile from submarine would begin in October. It will hardly have been necessary to be patient since on October 4, the Russian Navy announced that it had carried out the first two firings of this test phase, both from the nuclear missile submarine Severodvinsk, the first unit of the Iassen class. of project 885,…
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