The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine destroyed the Russian myth about "Tsirkon" – the missile turned out to be a solid-fuel ballistic missile
Kyiv • UNN
The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine classified "Tsirkon" as a solid-fuel ballistic missile. Intelligence data refute the russian claims about a scramjet engine.
The Russian 3M22 "Tsirkon" missile, which Russia had presented for years as a unique hypersonic weapon with a ramjet engine, in fact turned out to be a solid-fuel ballistic missile. Defense Express reports this, citing data from the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, UNN writes.
Details
According to a report by Ukrainian intelligence, the "Tsirkon" does not have a hypersonic scramjet engine, as Russian propaganda had claimed for years.
After the booster completes its operation, the missile uses a 3L2211 solid-fuel rocket engine manufactured by Russia’s NPO Iskra. The Main Intelligence Directorate directly classifies the 3M22 "Tsirkon" as a ballistic missile.
It took about two years to determine the missile’s design
Defense Express notes that the Russian version of the "Tsirkon’s" design was considered plausible for a long time, even after Ukrainian specialists obtained fragments of the missile.
After analyzing the fragments in February 2024, the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise stated that the missile had a jet engine rather than a solid-fuel engine. Some of the elements found had also previously been mistaken for fuel tanks characteristic of a different engine design.
The new data from the Main Intelligence Directorate, according to Defense Express, definitively refute Russia’s years-long claims about the supposedly high-tech scramjet hypersonic engine of the "Tsirkon" and change perceptions of the missile’s actual design.