Russia is in the midst of arming its new nuclear submarines with hypersonic Zircon missiles, according to the chief of Russia’s largest shipbuilder in an interview published on Monday by the RIA official news agency.
“Multi-purpose nuclear submarines of the Yasen-M project will be equipped with the Zircon missile system on a regular basis,” United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) CEO Alexei Rakhmanov told RIA.
“Work in this direction is already underway.”
The Yasen-class submarines, also known as Project 885M, are nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines designed to replace Soviet-era nuclear attack submarines as part of a modernization project for the army and fleet.
The sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles have a range of 900 km (560 miles) and can fly at speeds up to many times the speed of sound, making defence against them challenging.
President Vladimir Putin stated earlier this year that Russia will begin mass production of Zircon missiles as part of its attempts to strengthen its nuclear weapons.
Admiral Gorshkov, a Russian multi-purpose frigate that demonstrated its attack capabilities in the western Atlantic Ocean earlier this year, was already outfitted with Zircon missiles.
