Kinzhal & Zircon hypersonic missiles

Kinzhal missile-

• Unveiled in 2018, Kinzhal, according to the Russians, is capable of reaching speeds of Mach 10 and greater, with a range of about 1,250 miles. 
• The missile is also believed to be nuclear-capable and usually launched by MiG-31 warplanes. It was first used against Ukraine in 2022.
• Apart from Kinzal, Moscow reportedly has two other types of hypersonic missile systems. 
• One is the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, which can fly at speeds as high as Mach 27 
• And the other is the Zircon anti-ship missile. However, there have been no reports of Zircon or Avangard being used in a war.

About Zircon missile-

• It is a scramjet powered maneuvering anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile.
• It can travel more than five times the speed of sound and manoeuvre in mid-flight, making them much harder to track and intercept than traditional projectiles.
• It could hit targets at sea and on land with a range of 1,000 kilometres (620 miles).
• The Zircon looks set to join Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles that were put into service in 2019 and the air-launched Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles in Russia’s arsenal.
• Russia had placed into service its first Avangard hypersonic missile in December 2019, making it the first country to claim an operable hypersonic weapon.

What is a hypersonic missile?

• A hypersonic missile, such as Kinzhal, is capable of flying at least at the speed of Mach 5, i.e. five times the speed of sound, and is manoeuvrable. 
• The manoeuvrability of the hypersonic missile is what differentiates it from a ballistic missile, as the latter follows a set course or a ballistic trajectory. 
• Thus, unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles do not follow a ballistic trajectory and can be manoeuvred to the intended target.
• This makes them extremely lethal because by the time they are detected by ground-based radars, they are already quite near to their target.

• There are two types of hypersonic weapons systems: 

• 1. Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGV) and 
  2. Hypersonic Cruise Missiles. 
• The HGVs are fired from a rocket before gliding to the intended target while the hypersonic cruise missile is powered by air-breathing high-speed engines or ‘scramjets’ after acquiring their target.
• Hypersonic weapons can enable responsive, long-range strike options against distant, defended or time-critical threats (such as road mobile missiles) when other forces are unavailable, denied access or not preferred. 
• Conventional hypersonic weapons use only kinetic energy i.e. energy derived from motion, to destroy unhardened targets or even underground facilities.
• These systems are one of the more recent warfare technologies being developed by China, North Korea, Russia and the United States.