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X-95 long-range hypersonic missile

Strategic aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces may become carriers of the X-95 long-range hypersonic missile. Russia is developing the latest X-95 long-range hypersonic aviation missile, Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, head of the military academy of the General Staff, said in an article for the August 2021 Military Thought magazine. He did not elaborate on any details about the project. Zarudnitsky considers dominance in the aerospace sphere to be the most important condition for the successful conduct of hostilities, and it can be ensured through the effective use of strike and fighter aircraft. Information about the creation of a long-range hypersonic missile with the X-95 index has not been previously made public.

Zarudnitsky wrote "Today, the dominance in the aerospace sphere is the most important condition for successful combat actions by land and sea groups of troops (forces). it is ensured by the sufficiency of quantitative and qualitative combat strike and fighter personnel aviation, as well as the use of effective methods of their actions, allowing to pre-empt the enemy in the course of armed struggle in this area. To this end, such new ones are being developed and adopted for the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation and modernized models of VVST, as the Tu-160M strategic missile carrier-bomber; aviation hypersonic missile system "Dagger"; Long-range air-launched WTO, in particular the Kh-95 hypersonic missile; UAV different classes; over-the-horizon detection radars; anti-aircraft missile systems (complexes), etc.

"But to produce and adopt the latest models of VVST and to create the necessary combat potential of groups of troops (forces) is not enough. Needs to be developed and to master new forms of their application and methods of warfare, ensuring the achievement of dominance in the aerospace sphere."

A source in the military-industrial complex told RIA Novosti that a new hypersonic missile is being developed for Tu-22M3M and Tu-160M bombers, as well as for the Advanced Long-Range Aviation Complex (PAK DA). "Prototypes of the new product have already been tested from the air carrier," the agency's source added.

Experts note that a tactical cruise missile, which, obviously, will have a range of more than a thousand kilometers. Apparently, targeting will be carried out with the involvement of ground, air and space complexes, which will guarantee the destruction of the target.

Russian hypersonic weapons were presented in 2018. It includes the Avangard, Dagger and Zircon missiles. It is assumed that project 22350 frigates, the latest Yasen-M project 885M multipurpose submarines, the Admiral Nakhimov missile cruiser and the Irkutsk submarine, which will be upgraded to the 949AM level, will be armed with hypersonic missiles. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in February 2021 that various-based hypersonic systems will become the backbone of Russia's non-nuclear deterrent forces.

The Russian troops are on experimental combat duty aircraft complexes with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, including a MiG-31K carrier and a hypersonic missile, which was created on the basis of Iskander aeroballistic missiles. On tests, the ammunition reached a speed of ten times the speed of sound. At the end of June 2021, two MiG-31Ks with hypersonic missiles were deployed for the first time to an airbase in Syria.

In addition, intra-fuselage hypersonic missiles are being developed for the fifth generation Su-57 fighter. As previously reported to RIA Novosti by another source in the defense industry, an experienced Su-57 fighter made several flights with functional mass and size models of a hypersonic missile.

In addition, Russia is completing tests of a shipborne missile system with a Zircon hypersonic cruise missile. The ships and submarines of the Navy will be armed with such missiles. The last firing of the Zircon during the tests was carried out on July 19 from the frigate Admiral Gorshkov. On 21 July 2021, the general director of the Tactical Missile Armament Corporation (KTRV) Boris Obnosov pointed out the possibility of creating a ground version of the Zircon.