Russia flexes military muscle with hypersonic missiles and bombers during drills

Russia said on Sunday that it had fired a Zircon hypersonic cruise missile at a target in the Barents Sea and that Sukoi Su-34 supersonic fighter-bombers had carried out strikes as part of joint military exercises with Belarus.

Russia’s “Zapad”, or West, joint strategic exercise with Belarus began on Sept. 12 aiming to improve military command and coordination in the event of an attack on either Russia or Belarus, the defense ministry said.

Moscow and Minsk have said the exercises are exclusively defensive and that they do not intend to attack any NATO member, though the US-led military alliance announced an “Eastern Sentry” operation after the incursion of Russian drones into Poland on Sept. 9-10.

Russia’s defence ministry released footage of the Northern Fleet’s Admiral Golovko frigate firing a Zircon hypersonic missile at a target in the Barents Sea.

The footage showed a missile being launched vertically from the frigate and then powering off at an angle into the horizon.

“According to objective monitoring data received in real time, the target was destroyed by a direct hit,” the ministry said.

The ministry said that long-range anti-submarine aircraft of the Northern Fleet’s mixed aviation corps were also involved in the exercise.

It said Su-34 crews practiced a bombing strike against ground targets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2019 that the Zircon can fly at nine times the speed of sound and hit targets at sea and on land at a range of more than 600 miles.

Russian media sources say the missile, known as the 3M22 Zircon in Russia and the SS-N-33 by NATO, has a range of 400 km to 1,000 km, and that its warhead mass is around 300 kg-400 kg.