Russia is developing new ballistic missile Zmeevik to destroy aircraft carriers.

According to information published by Tass on July 13, 2022, Russia is developing a new “aircraft carrier killer” — ballistic missile Zmeevik with a hypersonic warhead for the Navy.
Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Artist rendering of the Tsirkon hypersonic missile (Picture source: sputnik)

Another source said the missile could enter service with coastal missile units of the Navy. One of the sources added that in terms of its characteristics, the Zmeevik resembles Chinese missiles of a similar class — DF-21D and DF-26 with a range of up to 4,000 km.

NPO mashinostroenia enterprise in Reutov, which designed hypersonic Tsirkon anti-ship missile, Avangard reentry vehicles for ICBM Sarmat and Onyx supersonic missiles refused to comment.

About Tsirkon hypersonic missile

The 3M22 Zircon also spelled as 3M22 Tsirkon (SS-N-33) is a scramjet-powered maneuvering anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile currently in production by Russia.

Zircon is believed to be a maneuvering, winged hypersonic cruise missile with a lift-generating center body. A booster stage with solid-fuel engines accelerates it to supersonic speeds, after which a scramjet motor with liquid fuel in the second stage accelerates it to hypersonic speeds.

The high speed of the Zircon likely gives it better target-penetration characteristics than lighter subsonic cruise missiles, such as Tomahawk.