3M22 Zircon Hypersonic Cruise Missile

Isos wrote:

And yes the zircon would replace Onyx eventually, and will likely be used for land attack too.

It's doubtfull that it will have a very long range for that role. Even oniks is 600km in high altitude mode. Speed is not only factor for missiles.

max steel wrote:More  became known about its range, stated to be around 400 kilometers, what this "around" means nobody knows but it was speculated for a while that it is up to 500 kilometers. But that is not what really matters in this news.

For me it was a surprise--it was confirmed that Zircon will be launched from standard 3C14 VLS system which is installed on all new Russian frigates and corvettes this adding to Kalibr and Onyx carrying capability. These are not good news for opponents surface component, in fact, these are very very bad news since this capability will be distributed across most platforms, current and perspective, Russian Navy deploys.

GarryB wrote:The range of weapons for the UKSK will only expand.

It might eventually include UAVs and UCAVs, and does already include the Klub, Calibr, and Onyx/Yakhont/Brahmos range of missiles.

It will most likely get Kh-101 and Kh-102 capability too.

This means land attack capability and anti ship capability and anti sub capability with the mach 2.5 ballistic Klubs launching a torpedo up to 40km away from the ship to attack a submerged submarine.

Add Zircon soon and who knows what else...

GarryB wrote:

UCAVs???.... why, UAVs sure, they can be made small enough, but UCAVs need to carry bombs, i don't think the UKSK tube has that kind of space, besides isn't kalibre and soon Zircon more than enough?

A target of opportunity might present itself during a recon flight... having a section you can eject to attack a target of opportunity might be useful.

Even just having a light machine gun on a UAV able to fire warning shots at targets.

The space inside a UKSK tube is huge... just look at the size of the Yakhont... it is 9 metres long and weighs over 2.5 tons.

There is plenty of space for a UAV and a UCAV.

A UAV could be used to penetrate enemy airspace in a deniable way with no risk to flight crew. Making it armed means you can do some damage if you need to while doing that.

What kind of targeting system the zirkon has?

Most likely radar and possibly electro-optical terminal homing.

GarryB wrote:

UCAVs???.... why, UAVs sure, they can be made small enough, but UCAVs need to carry bombs, i don't think the UKSK tube has that kind of space, besides isn't kalibre and soon Zircon more than enough?

A target of opportunity might present itself during a recon flight... having a section you can eject to attack a target of opportunity might be useful.

Even just having a light machine gun on a UAV able to fire warning shots at targets.

The space inside a UKSK tube is huge... just look at the size of the Yakhont... it is 9 metres long and weighs over 2.5 tons.

There is plenty of space for a UAV and a UCAV.

A UAV could be used to penetrate enemy airspace in a deniable way with no risk to flight crew. Making it armed means you can do some damage if you need to while doing that.

What kind of targeting system the zirkon has?

Most likely radar and possibly electro-optical terminal homing.

GarryB wrote:

I think it is not that natural.

The nose of the rocket will be extremely hot, so possibly there is no homing system there.

It means that an onyx has to deliver the targeting data for it.

The IRST on a MiG-29 and Su-27 and for that matter MiG-31 are no where near the tips of their noses.

The latest model AS-11 has both radar and IR sensors in its nose...

Singular_Transform wrote:

GarryB wrote:

I think it is not that natural.

The nose of the rocket will be extremely hot, so possibly there is no homing system there.

It means that an onyx has to deliver the targeting data for it.

The IRST on a MiG-29 and Su-27 and for that matter MiG-31 are no where near the tips of their noses.

The latest model AS-11 has both radar and IR sensors in its nose...

Again, the issue of the sensor is not trivial, the scramjet generating plasma in the front of the nose, so I can not see how you can use forward looking IR sensor or radar .

GarryB wrote:

Again, the issue of the sensor is not trivial, the scramjet generating plasma in the front of the nose, so I can not see how you can use forward looking IR sensor or radar .

Look at photos of the latest model AS-11... it has passive radar seeker in nose (it is an ARM) and it has two IR sensors underneath and it flys at a standard mach 4-5 AFAIK with rocket propulsion.

Can someone explain why the Zircon has an angular "duck bill" nose instead of the streamlined intake of the Onyx? What are the aerodynamic benefits?

The flat nose is a wave riding lifting body design... it is very streamlined... there is just more frontal surface area.

GarryB wrote:Temperature is relative... what makes you think and IR sensor looking through a nose cone that is heated to 400 degrees C by friction wont work when an IR sensor looking through a room temperature heated to 25 degrees C will work.

That actual IR sensor element is either a cooled element or an uncooled element, but it is the temperature of the element itself that determines its performance... not the air between the element and what it is detecting, nor the surface temperature of the housing the sensor is mounted in.

Compared with a liquid nitrogen cooled detector element room temperature is already very very hot, yet it manages to detect both very hot and very cold objects...

GarryB wrote:Plasma is caused by reentry speeds... 7-10km/s. We are only talking about mach 7-8...  no more than about 2.5km/s.

Hardly plasma creating speeds... the S-400 and S-500 probably travel faster than that and they have working nose mounted radar antenna.

Look at this latest model of the AS-11:



Near the nose underneath is one of two forward looking IR sensors... now it does not fly at mach 8, but it does move at more than mach 3 and AFAIK the friction heating at a speed of about mach 3 is something like 300 degrees C... or it is for the MiG-31/25.

If it can look through a crystal lense at 300 degrees C then why not faster and hotter... what would be the limit?

Certainly Plasma blocks radio waves but IR are not radio waves.