Kremlin: Russian Army will be equipped with hypersonic missiles by 2022
Between 2020 and 2022 the Russian Defense ministry expects to acquire aeronautical missiles which fly at hypersonic speeds (five or more times faster than the speed of sound), Deputy Defense Minister Yuriy Borisov announced at the MAKS 2017 air show, as reported by TASS.
“In the aviation industry, in the UAC [United Aircraft Corporation] there are plans to create various versions of aeronautical means to use hypersonic technology. But there is still more to this. We hope to acquire weaponry,” Borisov said.
According to Lenta.ru, in November 2016, a source in the Defense Ministry said that testing had begun on hypersonic missiles for long-range aircraft. The prospective weaponry was being tested with a Tu-22M hypersonic bomber. The new missiles are intended to destroy an enemy’s ground targets and military vessels.
“This development is taking place in the context of a large program to create hypersonic devices for the aerospace forces, the navy and the strategic nuclear forces. Several models have already been added to the series, others are still only at the research stage,” the source said.
Before this, Tactical Missiles Corporation CEO Boris Obnosov said that Russia could have hypersonic weaponry by the start of the next decade.
Among the known programs to develop hypersonic weaponry for the Armed Forces of Russia, the Zircon (3M22) anti-ship missiles can be mentioned. Work on their development has been done by the Tactical Missiles Corporation since 2011 at least. They will presumably be adopted into the armament towards the end of the 2020s, and they will enter the arsenal of the modernized missile carriers of project 949AM, the new multipurpose submarines of projects 885 and 885M, the heavy nuclear missile cruisers of project 1144 and the surface ships of the prospective “Leader” type.