Russia’s newest nuclear-powered submarines will be equipped with hypersonic Tsirkon missiles, the country’s largest shipbuilder told the Russian news agency (RIA).

says Alexey Rachmanov, CEO of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), in an interview with RIA, which was reproduced by Reutersthis work is already underway to equip nuclear-powered submarines with Tsirkon missiles.

Tsirkon is a hypersonic naval target missile with a range of 900 km.

President Vladimir Putin said earlier this year that Russia would begin mass deliveries of Tsirkon missiles as part of the country’s efforts to boost its nuclear forces, according to The Guardian. Reuters.

– Putin said in February of this year that with the introduction of the Borej-A nuclear-powered submarine project “Emperor Alexander III” into the Navy, the share of modern weapons and equipment in the Navy’s strategic nuclear forces will reach one hundred percent.

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However, a Norwegian nuclear researcher is unsure if the Tsirkon hypersonic missile can be used to deliver nuclear warheads from modern Russian submarines.

– As far as I know, the possibility of equipping this missile with nuclear warheads has not been documented, but there have been speculations about this. Until then, it should probably be considered traditional missile, senior researcher Halvor Kippe at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute (FFI) tells Netavisen.

Nine times the speed of sound

Kibe notes that both the United States and Russia withdrew their nuclear weapons from their attack submarines after presidential overtures in 1991.

The so-called Presidential Initiatives (PNIs) refer to statements by US President George HW Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev regarding a significant reduction in non-strategic nuclear weapons, which included, among other things, the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from platforms such as surface ships and attack submarines.

Only in recent years has Russia launched a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarines with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles as well as strategic nuclear submarines with long-range ballistic missiles. The new attack submarines will be equipped with a cruise missile which are considered to be of conventional and nuclear capability, Kippe says.

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– The status of Tsirkon is that it is hypersonic, that is, five times faster than the speed of sound. I’ve seen ratings for both eight and nine times , but we don’t have ratings for it. Kibby says that intercepting hypersonic cruise missiles is much more difficult than intercepting hypersonic or subsonic cruise missiles.

Putin boasted of super-missiles

The Russian frigate “Admiral Gorshkov” is already equipped with Tsirkon missiles. These are among Russia’s newest warships, and Putin boasted in January this year that the “Admiral Gorshkov” was equipped with hypersonic Tsirkon missiles.

– I am convinced that such powerful weapons can reliably protect Russia from possible external threats, and will contribute to securing the national interests of our country, as Putin said at the time, according to CNN.