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Russia says it has test-fired another hypersonic missile
The Russian navy on Saturday conducted another test of a prospective hypersonic missile, a demonstration of the military's long-range strike capability amid the fighting in Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry said the Admiral Gorshkov frigate of the Northern Fleet in the White Sea launched the Zircon cruise missile in the Barents Sea, successfully hitting a practice target in the White Sea about 1,000 kilometers (540 nautical miles) away.
[...] Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Zircon is capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound and has a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). Putin has emphasized that its deployment will significantly boost the capability of Russia's military.
Previously: Russia Reports First Combat Use of Hypersonic Missiles
US Tested Hypersonic Missile but Kept It Quiet to Avoid Escalating Tensions With Russia
(Score: 4, Insightful) by driverless on Monday May 30 2022, @02:35PM (11 children)
... to the staggering losses and war crimes behind the curtain! Lookit this missile! Look, shiny. Please look. Please?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @02:48PM (4 children)
you're being silly.
putin doesn't care about people saying "war criminal" or whatever.
he cares about keeping everyone too terrified to do anything that he doesn't like.
somewhat annoying that he isn't honest about what he "likes"/wants.
but it's not his fault our societies are only trained to interact with rational actors.
while he may be mildly interested in keeping information flow within russia in check, he doesn't give a shit about what people outside of russia think or say about him.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @06:12PM (3 children)
Our societies are trained to only deal with rational actors???
LOL.
Politicians? Just name any one of them.
(Score: -1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @06:39PM (2 children)
uhm... they are mostly rational, even the majority of those that act like religious nutcases.
if you follow the money, you will see that they are rational.
the exceptions? simple exceptions, and usually they end up with no real power, despite making noise during elections.
trump? fairly rational. psychopath, self-centered compulsive liar, but rational. most importantly: the government itself remained rational, with various elements blocking his biggest mistakes.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 31 2022, @09:03PM
"Humor is such a subjective thing." [youtube.com] -- Emperor Cartigia
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:47AM
hurray! I got a (-1, insightful)!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @04:48PM (2 children)
Not only, "Lookit this missile!", but also "Lookit the flight path!". If the ship launch was from the middle of Barents Sea the flight path would be roughly south. Changing that heading a bit to the west would put it in Finland, and a little further in Sweden. The reputed landing for the test was in the White Sea which is barely over 100km from the Russia-Finland border.
Since the weapon is designed for both ship and land targets, this is a direct threat against Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Not even thinly veiled...
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @06:25PM (1 child)
Change the heading a little to the east and it will be in Moscow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @06:33PM
Hmmmmm, are you suggesting a way to re-program the missile aiming coordinates?
The launching ship would have to come in closer to shore, Moscow is quite a bit further from the Arctic Ocean coast, and is due-south of the White Sea.
(Score: 2) by bussdriver on Monday May 30 2022, @05:43PM (2 children)
Exactly, this serves no real purpose. They cost a ton of money, they do not have a lot of them so if they use them in the war it's harming them probably more than the enemy. They can easily fly cheap rockets with no proper aiming since they do not care how many people they kill or how much damage they do because they just want the land at this point.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2022, @10:57PM (1 child)
> because they just want the land at this point.
Has anyone looked at the cost of this war to Russia? Any guesses? Make sure to include some estimate of the cost of all the soldiers they have lost.
It might have been cheaper for Russia to have contracted with a bunch of realty companies and just bought the land they wanted. It appears the oligarchs had plenty of money before it was all embargoed. If they were clever (I think the Russians are known for that?) they could have worked quietly over a number of years and not announced their intentions until they owned most of it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @06:56PM
You mean like how Germany finally built their European Empire, aka the European Union? That would require honest work and investment in the future. Putin's regime doesn't believe in those things. And it shows.
For the record, I believe that if Russia had followed Germany's example of using peaceful means that they could have built the empire they dream of, and the world would have been better off for it.