{"id":40320,"date":"2024-04-02T11:34:52","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T06:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=40320"},"modified":"2025-04-25T01:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T19:52:10","slug":"russia-has-fired-5-zircon-missiles-at-kyiv-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/russia-has-fired-5-zircon-missiles-at-kyiv-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia has fired 5 Zircon missiles at Kyiv this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<p>\u25cf Why in News?<\/p>\n<p>\u25cf What is Hypersonic weapon?<\/p>\n<p>\u25cf What is Kinzhal?<\/p>\n<p>\u25cf What is Zircon?<\/p>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<p>As per the Ukraine\u2019s military administration, Russia has used five of its <strong>new hypersonic Zircon missiles<\/strong> to attack Kyiv since the start of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Russia also fired 11 Kinzhal missiles, another hypersonic weapon which travels at several times the speed of sound.<\/p>\n<h2>What is Hypersonic weapon?<\/h2>\n<p><strong>About<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They are normally defined as fast, low-flying, and highly manoeuvrable weapons designed to be quick and agile for traditional missile defence systems to detect in time.<\/li>\n<li>Unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons don\u2019t follow a predetermined, arched trajectory and can manoeuvre on the way to their destination.<\/li>\n<li>The term hypersonic describes <strong>any speed faster than five times that of sound<\/strong>, which is roughly 760 miles (1,220 km) per hour at sea level.\n<ul>\n<li>On the other hand, a supersonic missile travels at the speed between Mach 1 and Mach 5.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>At hypersonic speeds, the air molecules around the flight vehicle start to change, breaking apart or gaining a charge in a process called ionization.\n<ul>\n<li>This subjects the hypersonic missiles to tremendous stresses as it pushes through the atmosphere.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Types of hypersonic weapons<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are two main types of these weapons \u2013 glide vehicles and cruise missiles.<\/li>\n<li>Glide missiles are launched from a rocket before gliding to their targets. This is because of the challenges of achieving hypersonic propulsion of missiles.<\/li>\n<li>The missiles have engines called scramjets that use the air\u2019s oxygen and produce thrust during their flight, allowing them to cruise at a steady speed and altitude.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Countries having hypersonic weapons<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>US, China and Russia have the most advanced capabilities.<\/li>\n<li>Several other countries are investigating the technology, including India, Japan, Australia, France.<\/li>\n<li>North Korea claims to have tested a hypersonic missile.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>India and hypersonic weapon<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India is closing in on having such weapons in its arsenal.<\/li>\n<li>In 2020, India successfully tested its hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle (HSTDV), powered by a scramjet engine.<\/li>\n<li>The HSTDV will serve as a crucial building block in the development of long-range hypersonic weapons, which will take another four to five years to become a reality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is Kinzhal?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Kinzhal is an air-launched hypersonic missile with a reported range of 1,500-2,000 km.<\/li>\n<li>This missile can fly at 10 times the speed of sound and can overcome air-defence systems.\n<ul>\n<li>Following launch, the Kinzhal rapidly accelerates to Mach 4 (4,900 km\/h), and may reach speeds up to Mach 10 (12,350 km\/h).<\/li>\n<li>The speed of the missile, combined with its erratic flight trajectory and high manoeuvrability, could complicate interception.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It can carry nuclear payload of 480 kg. This is 33 times the yield of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Hiroshima.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is Zircon?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to Russia, the sea-based Zircon missiles have a range of 1,000 km and travel at nine times the speed of sound.\n<ul>\n<li>If Russia\u2019s claims are true, the Zircon missile could evade the advanced US Patriot air defence system.<\/li>\n<li>This is because, hypersonic speed could greatly reduced reaction time for air defences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Basically, Zircon is a hypersonic cruise missile that is powered by a <strong>scramjet engine<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Scramjet engine uses the flow of air at supersonic speeds, compressed by the forward motion of the missile, to drive it forward.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It reportedly carries a 300-kilogram warhead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q.1. What is hypersonic?<\/h3>\n<p>Hypersonic means moving at or exceeding five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5 and above. For example, sound has a Mach 1, while Mach 5 is about 3,800 miles (6,116 km) per hour.<\/p>\n<h3>Q.2. What is scramjet?<\/h3>\n<p>A scramjet, or supersonic combustion ramjet, is a propulsion system for hypersonic vehicles that uses hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the atmosphere as oxidizers. It is a variant of the ramjet airbreathing jet engine, which uses the vehicle&#8217;s forward motion to compress incoming air for combustion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/world\/ukraine-says-russia-has-fired-5-zircon-missiles-at-kyiv-this-year-9245087\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Ukraine says Russia has fired 5 Zircon missiles at Kyiv this year<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/world-news\/what-is-kinzhal-russia-s-advanced-hypersonic-missile-used-in-ukraine-5-points-101647680409517.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Hindustan Times<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theprint.in\/theprint-essential\/impossible-to-defend-against-what-is-zircon-hypersonic-missile-that-putin-says-russia-used-in-battle\/1983838\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>The Print<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hypersonic weapons don\u2019t follow a predetermined, arched trajectory and can manoeuvre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}