On October 3 and 4, Russia’s defense ministry announced its first and second flight tests of a Zircon hypersonic missile from attack submarine Severodvinsk (K-560). In the first test, Russia’s navy fired the missile from the surfaced submarine in the Barents Sea, striking a “hypothetical sea target.” In a second test, announced October 4, Severodvinsk successfully launched a Zircon missile from a submerged position in the White Sea to a target in the Barents Sea. The 3M22 Zircon is a scramjet-propelled hypersonic cruise missile with a claimed range of over 500 km.
