"It's a very, very fast weapon": Ukrainian Air Force tells how they shoot down Russian Zircon aircraft

Ukraine has the necessary means to destroy Russian hypersonic anti-ship missiles of the ZM22 Zircon type. Thus, the Defense Forces are able to shoot them down when these missiles enter the impact trajectory.

This was announced by the spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ilya Yevlash during a telethon. He noted that the speed of such weapons exceeds 5 machs, where 1 mach is approximately equal to 1.2 thousand kilometers per hour.

"This is a very, very fast weapon. If we're talking about Zircon, it's about 8-9 machs. This is incredibly fast. However, when these missiles enter the impact trajectory, their speed decreases. It becomes subsonic. About 4.5 mach," said the Air Force spokesman.

He also noted that when the speed of the Zircon is about Mach 4.5, Ukraine uses anti-ballistic missile systems to shoot them down, such as SAMP/T or Patriot.

Earlier, Air Force spokesman Ilya Yevlash said that Russian troops are using Zircon hypersonic missiles in the war against Ukraine, probably due to a shortage of other weapons. This is because these weapons are anti-ship and are used only in certain cases.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, on March 26, the head of the press center of the Southern Defense Forces, Natalia Gumenyuk, said that Russian troops had accumulated a stockpile of Zircon missiles in the occupied Crimea. The aggressor "may continue from time to time to carry out targeted terror with an emphasis, including on the capital," she said.

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