According to Russian military experts, the 3M22 "zircon" hypersonic missile equipped for the "Marshal Gorshkov" frigate does not have the legendary ability to significantly improve combat strength. The 3M22 "Zircon" hypersonic missile is an extremely powerful new-generation weapon developed by Russia. It is advertised as having the ability to easily sink the entire enemy aircraft carrier combat group, but in fact it is not. Military experts from Russia claim to have discovered a very dangerous loophole, which may lead to a fatal danger to the ship.
According to a report in the "Military Courier Weekly" magazine, according to preliminary information, the "Zircon" missile is being tested on the "Gorshkov Marshal" frigate, which is the only "Zircon" guided missile carrier. Due to the limited range of the 33M22 "Zircon" hypersonic missile (current information indicates that its maximum range is about 400-600 kilometers.), it is difficult for the Russian navy frigate to approach the enemy's aircraft carrier strike group without being discovered.
However, there is a loophole in the Russian frigate’s launch of hypersonic missiles at a distance of 600 kilometers from the enemy’s aircraft carrier battle group, and it is even impossible; because the enemy’s aircraft carrier battle group is equipped with the E-2C "Eagle Eye" carrier-based early warning aircraft, it Most of the time, early warning missions are performed for the fleet in the air; in fact, the aircraft carrier does not even need to take off an early warning aircraft to successfully detect and destroy the enemy; Russian military experts also say that if the aircraft carrier combat patrol flight formation discovers the "zircon" carrier in advance Ship, you can sink it before launching Zircon.
Russian expert Konstantin Sivkov said that Russia is insufficient in super-long-range situational awareness of ships, and Russian satellites cannot perform super-long-range reconnaissance and lock on the 33M22 "zircon" hypersonic missile; therefore, at this stage The 33M22 "Zircon" hypersonic missile only has a speed advantage of Mach 6-8.
However, other experts pointed out that the strength of the "Gorshkov Marshal" frigate is air defense capability; the ship is equipped with a 32-unit vertical launcher, which can be loaded with 32 48N6 air defense missiles (range 200 kilometers). Or 128 9M96 area ship-to-air missiles (range 40-120 kilometers), and even 512 9M100 point anti-missiles; if these ship-to-air missiles are mixed and loaded, even if the enemy carrier aircraft launches a saturation attack, there are strong points. Layer defense capability; this is enough to carry the ship to buy time to launch a "zircon" saturation attack on the enemy aircraft carrier battle group.
Of course, the loopholes guessed by Russian experts at this stage are still highly controversial, because Russia has not fully revealed the true capabilities of the "zircon" hypersonic missile. After more performance of this new weapon is disclosed, the outside world will There should be a comprehensive understanding of combat strength.
