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of sound. According to the US-based Missile
Defence Advocacy Alliance, Zircon is in a league
of its own when it comes to speed. The “maneu-
vering anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile” is
capable of speeds up to Mach 8, or almost 9,900
kilometers per hour (6,138 mph). The maneuver-
ing anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile is said
to have a range of somewhere between 500
and 1,000 kilometers (310 to 620 miles). Missiles
traveling at Mach 5 speed are hard to detect;
the speed of the Zircon missile would make it
“nearly impossible to defend against by existing
missile defence systems.

Speed isn’t Zircon’s only standout feature.
According to reports, the missile which was
successfully test-fired over a distance of about Weapon Systems at Lockheed Martin. “Our team looks forward
1,000 km (625 miles) in May last year, is com- to supporting the warfighter by providing more options to further
pletely covered by a plasma cloud during flight. protect America at sea.”
The cloud absorbs any rays of radio frequencies,
thus making the missile invisible to radars and Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor, will provide launcher systems,
allowing it to hit the target undetected. Zircon’s weapon control, All Up Rounds (AURs), which are the integrated
precision and its ability to alter its path while in missile components, and platform integration support for the
flight create more headaches for adversaries.
naval platform. The company, along with industry partners such as
Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics Mission Systems, is on
Russia, which has so far deployed two hyper- track to provide the CPS surface-launched, sea-based hypersonic
sonic systems - the Avangard and the Kinzhal strike capability to sailors by the mid-2020s. The Navy is expected
- has not shied away from using them in the war to begin testing the integration between the ship and the weapon
on Ukraine. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said system after modifications to the vessel, to support the missiles, are
in August that the country had deployed Kinzhal completed by the end of 2025. The contract also provides for addi-
(Dagger) missiles three times over the course of tional AURs plus canisters for the U.S. Army’s Long Range Hypersonic
the “special military operation” in Ukraine. The Weapon (LRHW) testing, training, and tactical employment.
country claims that its new hypersonic weapons
can attack targets in almost any point in the In September last year, the U.S. Air Force awarded a US $985 million
world and evade a U.S.-built missile shield.
contract to Raytheon Technologies, and its programme partner
Northrop Grumman, to commence development of a hypersonic
While the ‘Kinzhal’ is a cruise-type missile that is attack cruise missile as an operational capability. The missiles are
powered throughout its flight, a hypersonic glide planned for deployment on F-15 fighter jets in fiscal year 2027.
vehicle (HGV) such as the Avangard is launched Raytheon, which beat competition from Lockheed Martin and Boeing
atop a ballistic missile but separates from it and to win the contract, will deliver two of the missile batteries.
then moves towards its target unpowered. Unlike
a regular missile warhead that follows a predict- In December 2022, the U.S. Air Force conducted the first test launch
able path, an HGV makes sharp maneuvers in of a fully operational prototype of its hypersonic Air-launched Rapid
the atmosphere on the way to its target, making Response Weapon. The AGM-183A ARRW, made by Lockheed Martin,
it almost impossible for the enemy to defeat it. accelerated to greater than five times the speed of sound after
Avangard, which had been in development for being was launched from a B-52H Stratofortress bomber, and det-
three decades, is designed to sit atop an inter- onated after completing its planned flight path. The successful
continental ballistic missile.
launch of the prototype followed two consecutive successful flight
tests in May and July 2022.
Catching Up
With both Russia and China having a head start After the successful test of Operational Fires (OpFires), a hypersonic
when it comes to hypersonic weapons, the U.S. boost-glide weapons system, in May 2022, the Defence Advanced
has been working overtime to bridge the gap. Research Projects Agency (DARPA) successfully tested Operational
In February this year, Lockheed Martin won a Fires (OpFires), a hypersonic boost-glide weapons system. The
US$1.2 billion contract to deliver hypersonic mis- agency in July 2022 announced that the testing of the Hypersonic
siles to the Navy that can be integrated with the Air-Breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), an air-launched hyper-
Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyers. sonic cruise missile, was a success. While the test featured Raytheon
“Early design work is already underway,” says Technologies’ version of the vehicle, Lockheed Martin tested its ver-
Steve Layne, vice president of Hypersonic Strike sion of the HAWC system in March.
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