3M22 Zircon Hypersonic Cruise Missile

Isos wrote:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GQM-163_Coyote

They use the Coyote target missile that goes at mach 2.6 at very low altitude and mach 3-4 at high altitude.

It simulates russian supersonic missiles much better than the old soviet missiles used as a target simulate western missiles during russian tests.

Meanwhile they have this target drone in service, but their navy has lacked all forms of supersonic AshM's in service....doesn't that strike people quite odd? That's like having the ability to shoot down satellites (ASAT) but completely lack the ability to launch satellites in to orbit! Those drones also lack swarming wolf-pack algorithms that Federation AshM's have, despite the fact that Uncle Sham has advertised ad nauseam about their ability to create swarming drones.  They also lack the ECM capabilities of Federation AshM's, such as reflecting their radar image off the surface of the ocean. They also lack their gimbaled thrust vectoring exhaust nozzles found on Federation AshM's. They also lack the titanium armor some Federation AshM's have. Or the range. Or the obscuring stealth elements of their launch vehicles that Federation systems like Bastion and Bal come equipped with.

Isos wrote:What do you know about western missiles ? You think they keep improving them for over 70 years to just to add few tens of km ?

Built in test equipment in the ships can simulate even more a typical russian attack, not perfectly but that's still better than what russia does buy using outdated coastal missile as a target to test its defences.

BTW, Wikicrapia has total BS numbers. It claims the Onyx does only Mach 2. WTF. That would qualify it as a marginally supersonic weapon.
NATzO propagandists need to stop drinking their own retard koolaid.

http://roe.ru/eng/catalog/naval-systems/shipborne-weapons/yakhont/

Official number. 680m/s at low altitude which is mach 2. Maybe you should stop drinking your own propaganda.

It translate to match 5+ at 24+ km high.

And it is most possible the full fuel load speed, with partial load it is higher.

And of course the USA military is the single one that share false performance numbers, the Russians gives correct data.

They use the Coyote target missile that goes at mach 2.6 at very low altitude and mach 3-4 at high altitude.

It simulates russian supersonic missiles much better than the old soviet missiles used as a target simulate western missiles during russian tests.

It is essentially a Kh-31 attached to the same booster rocket used for the Standard naval SAMs in the long range versions.

The Coyote target was created after they got their hands on Kh-31 and is a copy... and mach 4 my arse... why would they describe it as a mach 3 target if it can go mach 4?

Mach 3 is the speed the Kh-31 moves at BTW... perhaps mach 4 is to pretend they made any changes to it at all...

The original competition for a new target missile was written specifically in the hopes of getting the Russians to offer Moskit, which is what they really wanted to get their hands on. Russians weren't that stupid... they offered an early model Kh-31 knowing it met all the criteria of the competition and was superior to the proposed American alternatives that existed mainly on paper.

It was like Russian rocket engines... they were not happy buying them because they were sure American technology and knowhow could do better, but there wasn't anything better.

The solution has been a copy of the Soviet missile mounted on a standard US solid rocket booster used for long range Naval SAMs for the past few decades...

Their target used for training is their most potent anti ship weapon...

Official number. 680m/s at low altitude which is mach 2. Maybe you should stop drinking your own propaganda.

For the export model. The domestic model will have other penetration equipment like jammers and decoys it can deploy and of course it will be manouvering... and most likely the warhead will be armoured.

It translate to match 5+ at 24+ km high.

With new high energy fuel then possibly, but not likely deployed yet.

Does look like an Onyx launch.
There has been some suggestions that Zircon is pretty closely related to Onyx, wouldn't be too surprising if the launch boost system is very similar even if the terminal section is significantly different.

Others say it is the other way around, the close up is the Tsirkon and the footage from farther away the Oniks... reality is no-one in the open sources has seen the Tsirkon so it is only wild, unfounded speculation. Who says the missile has to resemble the X-51?

Arrow wrote:the text shows that the missile flies 450 km in 4.5 minutes. This gives an average speed of only 1.6 km / s

It starts from 0 and reaches Mach 8. Ever heard about math?

Arrow wrote:ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2hDIPFdnDA

But looks like Onyx missile. This is probably Onyx.

The wide shot shows a much more intense plume than I've ever seen on the Kalibr and Onyx missiles, and then there's that massive flash like another rocket stage kicking in. Whatever it is it doesn't look like any Kalibr or Onyx launch.

The tip might have a protective cap to prevent debris from falling in the scram jet air duct.

Knowing that even a simple Bujan-M 21631 corvette can hit after only 270 seconds at Mach 8 the threat would change the tactic. Respect and wonder.

Both Onyx and Zircon use ramjet engines so both will have fairings over the front of them that cover and protect their air intakes before and during launch.

The engine thrust of the missiles is fixed but obviously fully variable, just like any jet powered airplane.

The first 450km of its flight it will be operating at max weight with full fuel tanks... hitting a target 450km away means likely hitting the target with half full fuel tanks.

Targets that are further away will use up more of that fuel and will allow the missile to accelerate.

A jet engine limits the speed of an aircraft so a high bypass turbofan like on an airliner or transport plane will never become supersonic no matter what flight weight or fuel status it gets to in its flight, but a supersonic combustion ramjet has no practical upper speed limit so as it burns fuel it gets lighter and lighter so it should get faster and faster too... of course as it gets lighter it can reduce its throttle a bit to maintain speed and then as it gets to the radar horizon of the target ramp up to full thrust and accelerate to max speed as it approaches the target.

28km is not a very high operational altitude which would also effect top speed as well.

It looks identical to the Onyx launch.

It should... gas capsule blows it out of the tube and into the air where a nose mounted rocket thruster turns the missile towards the targets direction and then counter thrusters stop it from rolling too far and flying into the ground while the main solid rocket engine lights up a charge and rocket thruster jettisons the nose cap covering the main ramjet engine intake, while the main solid rocket motor lights up and accelerates the missile on its way towards its target....

The difference is that Onyx (and Yakhont and Brahmos) have a round air intake with a pointy nose with a radar in it sticking out the centre with a ramjet engine... once the solid rocket engine burns out the guts is ejected and the ramjet starts up to accelerate the missile as it climbs and accelerates towards the target.

The Zircon has a more sophisticated likely square or rectangular air intake with a pointy nose with a radar and a scramjet motor... once the solid rocket motor burns out the Scramjet motor powers up and accelerates the missile to much higher altitudes and higher flight speeds.


As the ramjet gets faster and faster it has to constrict the airflow going into the engine so when fuel is added it burns subsonically... in the scramjet the airflow is carefully controlled to allow the air to flow through the hot section at supersonic speeds and to burn fuel there generating much faster exhaust air and much more thrust at high speeds... meaning it can accelerate much faster and to much greater speeds.