Russian Defense Ministry Press Service

In this photograph taken from video released connected Monday, Nov. 29, 2021 by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, The Admiral Gorshkov frigate of the Russian navy launches a Zircon hypersonic cruise rocket successful the White Sea. The motorboat was the latest successful a bid of tests of Zircon, which is acceptable to participate work adjacent year. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

MOSCOW – Russia's navy has successfully test-fired a prospective hypersonic missile, the subject said Monday.

The Defense Ministry said the Admiral Gorshkov frigate successful the White Sea launched the Zircon cruise missile, hitting a signifier people 400 kilometers (215 nautical miles) away. The motorboat was the latest successful a bid of tests of Zircon, which is acceptable to participate work adjacent year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Zircon would beryllium susceptible of flying astatine 9 times the velocity of dependable and person a scope of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). Putin has emphasized that its deployment volition importantly boost the capableness of Russia's military.

Zircon is intended to limb Russian cruisers, frigates and submarines. It is 1 of respective hypersonic missiles nether improvement successful Russia.

The Kremlin has made modernizing the country’s arsenals a apical precedence amid the tensions with the West that followed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

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