3M22 Zircon

Overview

The 3M22 Zircon (Russian: Циркон; NATO: SS-N-33) is the missile Moscow presents as its flagship hypersonic weapon. It was designed and is built by NPO Mashinostroyeniya in Reutov, near Moscow. Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (HUR) names the company as main designer and manufacturer in its War & Sanctions entry. It was developed as an anti-ship missile for the 3S14 vertical launchers on Project 22350 frigates and nuclear-powered submarines. The first published test firing was in 2017. Vladimir Putin sent the frigate Admiral Gorshkov to sea with the missile on 4 January 2023, and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed it flew at Mach 9 to more than 1,000 km (Al Jazeera).

In Ukraine it has become a land-attack weapon. It is fired mostly at Kyiv from mobile Bastion coastal launchers in occupied Crimea. Use was occasional in 2024 and turned routine in 2026.

Design and guidance

Russian statements have always called Zircon a hypersonic cruise missile powered by a scramjet. The debris recovered in Ukraine does not show one. HUR’s August 2026 release, reported by Ukrainska Pravda, describes a two-stage missile. A solid-propellant booster lifts it to the speed and altitude the sustainer needs and then drops away, and a second solid motor takes over. Small thrusters in a protective nose fairing align the missile on its initial course before the fairing is jettisoned. Electro-hydraulic actuators move folding control surfaces, and HUR says the whole tail section is titanium.

Guidance is inertial in cruise. A 3B222 active radar seeker from NPP Radar MMS takes over for the terminal phase. A Baget-83 computer from KB Korund-M runs the missile, and HUR calls that computer typical of Russian ballistic missiles. HUR lists the missile as roughly 8 m long and 0.666 m in diameter, flying at 30 to 40 km. Its highest recorded speed is Mach 6.8, which is not held for the whole flight, against Russia’s claim of Mach 8 to 9.

That fits an analysis by OSINT researcher Fabian Hinz, published in June 2026. Hinz argues that Zircon is a manoeuvring quasi-ballistic missile rather than an air-breathing cruise missile. He notes that no air intake is visible in launch footage, debris, patent drawings or Russian documentaries. He also points to a 2023 state award that cited a high-energy solid propellant for Zircon (Militarnyi; The War Zone). Hinz himself notes that the scramjet view remains the most widely held, and the question is not settled.

Electronics and foreign parts

The first physical evidence came from the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise. On 12 February 2024 its director, Oleksandr Ruvin, said debris from the 7 February strike on Kyiv carried the markings of a 3M22. Fragments were laser-engraved “3L22”, steering-mechanism bolts were stamped “26”, and production dates ran from late 2023 into 2024, which meant the missile had been assembled recently. The microelectronics were too damaged to analyse. Ruvin later said the engines, metal and components were standard and that some boards had been hand-assembled (UNN).

HUR’s 2026 database goes much further. It lists the 3L2211 sustainer from NPO Iskra, a launch motor attributed to the Perm machine-building plant, 3B915 steering units from TsNIIAG, a T-657 chemical battery from Energia, and Rusar para-aramid fibre from Kamenskvolokno. It also lists a 3B228 radio-technical countermeasure set from KNIRTI. That is an onboard self-protection system, a detail that matters to anyone building the radars meant to track the missile.

Two Western chips appear: a TGA2704 RF amplifier from TriQuint, now part of Qorvo, and an Altera Cyclone II FPGA, now Intel. Both are US-origin. HUR does not claim either company supplied Russia knowingly, and it does not say how the parts got there. In all, it names 70 enterprises and 84 individuals in the production chain.

Warheads

HUR puts the 3G22 warhead, made by GosNIIMash, at about 120 kg. It calls that “extremely low” for Russia’s most expensive strike missile, less than the 150 kg of the cheaper Banderol cruise missile (ArmyInform). In March 2024 Andriy Kulchytskyi of the Kyiv forensic institute estimated the explosive charge at no more than 40 kg, far smaller than that of a Kh-101. Some outlets give 300 kg. The debris analysis does not support that figure. No other warhead variant has been publicly documented.

Use against Ukraine

After the February 2024 strike, two more Zircons were reported over Kyiv on 25 March 2024, launched from Crimea (Euromaidan Press, citing Defense Express). For two years Zircon remained a rarity. HUR estimated the 2024 stockpile at about 40.

That changed in 2026. Militarnyi’s count of Air Force reports found 15 Zircons in June and 20 in the first 19 days of July, usually fired with Iskander-M salvos at Kyiv. HUR estimated a stockpile of more than 120 before July and a 2026 production plan of about 30. Deputy HUR chief Vadym Skibitskyi later said Russia had met its full-year Zircon target by early August (Euromaidan Press). The figures are Ukrainian intelligence estimates and do not fully agree with each other.

The Bastion launcher is the same one that fires the Oniks, and it has become a target in its own right. HUR long-range FPV drones hit a Bastion carrying two Zircons near Simferopol in March 2026 (Euromaidan Press). HUR’s Group 13 struck another in Crimea in August (Euromaidan Press).

Interception

Ukraine says Zircon can be shot down, and the claims rest on the missile’s terminal phase. In March 2024 Air Force spokesman Illia Yevlash said it slows to about Mach 4.5 on its attack path and that Patriot and SAMP/T can engage it (Kyiv Independent). Ukrainian officials have since credited Patriot with several kills, sometimes with a hedge. After the 15 June 2026 attack on Kyiv, spokesman Yurii Ihnat wrote that a Patriot “likely shot down” a Zircon, pointing to a photographed interceptor fragment (Ukrinform). No interception claim has been independently verified.

Reported results vary from raid to raid. Both Zircons fired on 7 March 2026 reached their targets. On other nights the Air Force reported downing one of two (Ukrainian News). For European air-defence planners the lesson from Ukraine is practical. Whatever the propulsion, Zircon behaves like a fast, manoeuvring ballistic target with a short warning time. Only the scarcest interceptors in the inventory can reliably answer it.