New Mobile Ground Launcher For Russia’s Zircon Hypersonic Cruise Missile Combat Tested to Strike Ukraine

The Ukrainian Air Force has reported that the Russian Amed Forces launched a Zircon hypersonic cruise missile during an overnight strike on the country on January 20. Where prior launches of the missile were conducted from ships, however, this latest firing was reported to have been carried out from a ground-based launcher on the disputed Crimean Peninsula. The first combat test of the Zircon was announced in February 2024, three years after the first missiles were delivered to the Navy, with their combination of Mach 9 speeds and 1,000 kilometre ranges allowing them to comfortably surpasses the capabilities of all known non-Chinese missile types. Although designed primarily as an anti-ship missile, the Zircon can also be used to strike ground targets as a secondary function. 

The development of a ground based mobile launch vehicle for the Zircon has long been expected to revolutionise the capabilities of Russia’s coastal defences, which deploy anti-ship missiles from mobile launchers as a significantly more cost effective means of delivering firepower. Currently operational Russian Bastion coastal defence systems deploy the Zircon’s predecessor, the shorter ranged and significantly slower P-800, which is still considered one of the world’s most capable anti-ship cruise missiles and has a Mach 3 speed. Much as the Bastion has proven highly potent in a land attack role since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian War in February, so too is it possible that the Zircon could be used for precision strikes against land targets with a reach considerably further and faster than its predecessor. 

Russian state media outlet TASS previously reported citing defence ministry sources that a coastal defence system based on the Zircon was set to enter service by the end of 2022, and was under development at NPO Mashinostroyeniya in the town of Reutov near Moscow. The sources further highlighted that the missile would be capable of attacking ground targets. This is not known to have materialised, however, although service entry in 2026 remains possible. The missile type is currently deployed from a number of Russian warship classes, with the first Yasen-M class nuclear powered attack submarine equipped with the missiles having been launched in March 2025. As Russian shipyards have not laid down any new destroyers or cruisers for the Navy since the Soviet era, the Zircon remains critical to compensating for many of the shortcomings of the country’s surface fleet.