The Project 885M (Yazen-M) nuclear-powered submarine Perm will enter service with the Russian Navy in late 2024 or early 2025. Among the nuclear submarines of project 885M, the fifth submarine Perm will be the first regular carrier of the Zircons, which will be structurally slightly different from its predecessors. Test launches of the Tsirkon missiles from the Project 885 Sverodvinsk submarine were conducted in the White Sea on October 4, 2022. The Sevmash Shipyard (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) is currently building six Project 885M submarines. The Project 885 and Project 885M lead submarines Severodvinsk, Kazan, and Novosibirsk are in operational service with the Russian Navy.
The 3M22 Zircon also spelled as 3M22 Tsirkon (NATO reporting name: SS-N-33) is a scramjet powered maneuvering anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile produced by Russia, for the Russian Navy which has launch platforms on frigates and submarines. Zircon is believed to be a maneuvering, winged hypersonic cruise missile with a lift-generating center body. A booster stage with solid-fuel engines accelerates it to supersonic speeds, after which a scramjet motor with liquid-fuel (Decilin) (JP-10 jet fuel) in the second stage accelerates it to hypersonic speeds. The missile’s range is estimated to be 135 to 270 nautical miles (155 to 311 mi; 250 to 500 km) at low level, and up to 400 nmi (460 mi; 740 km) in a semi-ballistic trajectory;[48] average range is around 400–450 km (250–280 mi; 220–240 nmi).
The Yasen class, Russian designations Project 885 Yasen and Project 885M Yasen-M (lit.?’ash tree’, NATO reporting name: Severodvinsk), also referred to as the Graney class, are a series of nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines designed by the Malakhit Marine Engineering Bureau and built by Sevmash for the Russian Navy. Design work commenced in earnest in the 1980s with the first submarine built in the 1990s–early 2010s with commissioning in 2013. Two additional boats to a modified Yasen-M design were commissioned in 2021 and six more are under construction. Based on the Akula class and Alfa class designs, the Yasen class is projected to replace the Russian Navy’s current Soviet-era nuclear attack submarines.[citation needed] The Akula class is optimised for a hunter-killer role, whereas the Yasen class concept uses the platform as a nuclear guided missile submarine (SSGN).
