Some Juicy Naval Porn From Russia.

Gremyashchiy fights air-defense battle with both Redut missile system and main caliber gun. You can see the poor Combat Department-2 (BCH-2, missile-artillery department) commander, lieutenant-captain, sweating it out. I assume lieutenant-commander, Captain 3rd Rank, next to him is F-2 (Missile-artillery flag specialist) of the brigade. So, the fun is had by all, not really, LOL. 

This class of the corvettes of Russian Navy is immensely powerful for its size and now we know that 3M22 Zircon is near. These corvettes are also carriers of this weapon and Admiral Gorshkov continues to launch Zircons as if there is no tomorrow. Now, the land target was hit 350+ kilometers away with the missile exceeding M=8. 

So, it looks like Zircon is entering first line service smoothly, since MoD confirmed that all Zircon launches have been successful. I guess the message here is very clear. Well, that's the portion of naval porn for ya.

And It Flies.

Frigate Admiral Gorshkov successfully launched hyper-sonic 3M22 Zircon missile from Barents Sea at the target at North Ural range. The missile flew over 500 kilometers (in Russian from TASS). I wrote so much about it that no matter what I write now--it all will be redundant. As was already stated, this year Zircon also will be launched from Kazan SSGN. 

Gorshkov. Courtesy of TASS.

I know there will be now very many incidents of a severe butt-hurt but we all have been warned in 2018 and in related news:

ДУШАНБЕ, 27 февраля. /ТАСС/. Авиаполк, дислоцированный в Канске Красноярского края, будет перевооружен на гиперзвуковые крылатые ракеты "Кинжал" до 2024 года. Об этом сообщил журналистам командующий войсками Центрального военного округа генерал-полковник Александр Лапин.

Translation: Krasnoyarsk (Kansk) air regiment will be fully equipped by Kinzhal hyper-sonic missiles by 2024. 

As you may have guessed already, those Kansk's MiG-31Ks (currently there are MiG-31BMs serving there) with Kinzhals could easily be deployed to forward Russia's Pacific Coast airfields (there is only 2,000 miles, as crow flies, between Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok) and you know what that means. As I already stated many times--naval warfare as we know it is over. It was for some time already, but this time it is official.    

The Coming Of Zircon.

As Interfax reports (In Russian), the first launch of a brand new hyper-sonic missile Zircon (3M22) from the sea platform will happen in the Spring of 2017. The missile, upon completion of trials, will be deployed on both surface ships and subs. Initially those will be both Russian Navy's Nuclear Missile Cruisers Admiral Nakhimov and Peter The Great, and all Yasen-class (project.885) SSGNs, and their follow up Husky-class SSGNs. 

I am not going to lie, I am impressed with the speed with which Zirkon is coming but then again, it is a revolutionary weapon which will change the naval paradigm and most people with even rudimentary understanding of missile weapons can appreciate the fact that even a single missile capable of M=6 and the range of somewhere between 400 and 1000 kilometers is, basically, not interceptable by any existing naval air-defense system. Russia invested a lot in it. A salvo of such weapons will, with a very high probability, ensure a defeat of an opponent. Zircon is an ultimate Sea Denial weapon, albeit, depending on the naval views it can be construed as a Sea Control one. But, considering the philosophy behind Soviet/Russian anti-shipping missile development, Zircon is a Sea Denial weapon which fits perfectly into the Russian view of A2/AD. Russia's A2/AD starts in what is known as DMZ (Remote Sea Zone) and it is this edge (aka Kromka) where platforms carrying this weapon will have to counter any effort to undermine Russia's security. Zircon also, undeniably, is the part of Russia's conventional strategic containment  and ocean deployment of the latest Russia Navy's SSGNs armed with this missile will serve this purpose. It will be fascinating to observe the change in naval thinking in the coming years.