American helicopters intercepted an invisible top-secret Russian Zircon

According to avia.pro, citing sources in the US Navy command, two launches of Russian Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, designed as a super-powerful weapon invisible to radars to destroy aircraft carriers, were successfully detected, and warships located at a relatively small distance one of them.

"Tracking the trajectory of the flight of the hypersonic missile was carried out by two military helicopters MH-60 equipped with Advanced Off-Board Electronic Warfare, which detected the missiles released, however, they did it not by radar, but by tracking the missile control signal", - the message says.

As RG previously wrote, the Zircon hypersonic missile, which is called the "aircraft carrier killer", is a top secret product, the tests of which are being watched with great interest by NATO countries. In 2019, it was reported that not a single navy in the world is yet armed with the means of defense against this threat.

“According to foreign analysts, the newest Russian missile is a deeply modernized version of the still Soviet anti-ship missile P-800 Onyx. This was the name of the export version of the Yakhont missiles”, - the message says.

Today the Zircon prototype P-800 is considered the most powerful and accurate among all foreign analogues. The hit of even one P-800 missile disables the aircraft carrier. Warhead weight - about 300 kg. Its explosion takes place inside the ship, since the hull breaks through without problems due to the tremendous speed. According to experts, the combat characteristics of the Zircon significantly exceed the capabilities of the P-800. A distinctive feature of the "Zircon" is that most of the time it flies at an altitude of 30-40 kilometers in a cloud of plasma, becoming invisible to the most modern radars. At the same time, the destructive ability of the Zircon is much higher than that of the P-800.

For the first time, the successful test of the Zircon missile in the anti-ship version was officially announced in May 2017. The rocket was reported to have reached eight speeds of sound. The estimated range of its flight is 1000 kilometers. Meanwhile, the range of US carrier-based aircraft with mid-air refueling is about 800 kilometers. Thus, the "Zircons" are able to protect any territory from attacks by aircraft carrier strike groups.

According to DatViet, the US is confident that American helicopters have managed to intercept the invisible Russian Zircon, and for this they did not need visual confirmation.

"With the help of the AOEW electronic warfare system, the United States can intercept all enemy anti-ship missiles, including hypersonic ones, in the early stages of launch", - the statement said.

Observers note that the NATO grouping of ships, obviously, was in the waters of the Barents Sea precisely at the moment when the tests of the newest Russian hypersonic missile "Zircon" were taking place there. It is not excluded that the main purpose of finding NATO forces in this area was just tracking the launches of Russian cruise missiles.