Russia has launched a hypersonic "zircon" during training near NATO borders (photo)

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that joint strategic exercises of Russia and Belarus "West-2025" began on September 12. Officially, their goal is to improve military administration and coordination in the event of an attack on Russia or Belarus. And unofficially, Western experts believe that this is the development of an attack on NATO countries.

Moscow and Minsk have already stated that training is exclusively defensive and does not attack any NATO members, although the USA headed by the US Alliance has announced the exercises of "Eastern Guard", operations that began after the invasion of Russian drones into Poland on the night of September 10. The Ministry of Defense of Russia has published footage of launching the hypersonic rocket "Zircon" from the frigate of the Northern Fleet "Admiral Golovko" on a target in the Barents Sea.

The footage shows the rocket starts vertically from the frigate, and then goes at an angle to the horizon. "According to the objective control obtained in real time, the goal was destroyed by direct hit," the department said. The exercises also participated in the distant prostitious planes of the mixed aviation corps of the Northern Fleet, and the crews of the Su-34 worked out the bombing strike for land purposes.

In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Zircon missile is capable of developing a speed that is exceeding the speed of sound, and striking targets at sea and at a distance of more than 1000 km. Russian media reports that a rocket known in Russia as 3m22 "Zircon" and in NATO as SS-N-33, has a range of 400 to 1000 km, and the weight of its combat part is about 300-400 kg. Russia also launched the starting installations of Iskander in the Kaliningrad region.