Media: Russian hypersonic missile Zircon is just a smaller replica of Chinese Dongfeng 17
Despite the Russian president’s statement that Russian specialists have successfully completed the development of the latest hypersonic cruise missile Zircon, military experts from the Chinese publication Sina Military said that, in reality, the Russian missile is nothing but a smaller replica of China's DF-17 hypersonic missile, which has been in service with the Chinese Army for several years.
"When the Dongfeng 17 hypersonic missile (DF-17) was presented this year, 1.4 billion people and media around the world have focused their attention on this uniquely shaped missile. The advent of Dongfeng 17 has shaped some of our new weapons. It can successfully defeat the United States. Now another big country has announced the actual deployment of hypersonic missiles, and this country is Russia. The hypersonic missiles Zircon developed by Russia is considered by the outside world the Russian version of Dongfeng 17," Sina Military writes, noting that both missiles are analogues, while the Chinese missile appeared much earlier than the Russian Zircon.
The publication notes that Russia has created a naval version of the hypersonic missile DF-17.
TASS news agency reported, citing a source in the Russian defense industry, that Russia intends to launch its new hypersonic missile Zircon from the Admiral Gorshkov figate at the end of this year.
Russian state television reported that Zircon hypersonic missile is the weapon that Russian President Putin may choose to destroy American cities in the event of nuclear war.
Russian military experts argue that no modern missile defense system can intercept the new Russian missile. The Zircon hypersonic cruise missile is designed to defeat ships and ground targets.
According to Putin, the missile is capable of speeds around Mach 9 and has a range that may exceed one thousand km.
Chief Kremlin’s propagandist Dmitry Kiselev showed on the Vesti Nedeli TV program a map of the United States, with targets, which, according to him, will first be destroyed by Russia in the event of a nuclear war. Kiselev also boasted that Zircon missiles could hit targets in less than five minutes.