The missile range is estimated to be 135 to
270 nautical miles (250 to 500 km) at a low level and up to 400 nautical miles
(740 km) in a semi-ballistic trajectory.
The Zircon missile can fly at a speed of Mach
9 to penetrate existing naval defence systems. In the future, Russian navy
submarines and surface ships will be equipped with hypersonic missile systems.
The Severodvinsk (K-560) is a Yasen class
nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine.
The submarine was handed over to the Russian navy in late December 2013.
The Yasen-class nuclear submarines can be armed with land-attack cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, anti-submarine missiles, including the P-800 Oniks SLCM, Kalibr family SLCM or 3M51 SLCM. Kalibr-PL has several variants, including the 3M54K (terminal-supersonic) and 3M54K1 (subsonic) anti-ship, 91R1 anti-submarine, and the 3M14K land-attack variant.
Russia has recently test-launched a zircon hypersonic
missile at a ground target from a surface vessel. The missile flew at Mach 7
across a distance of over 350 km.
