A top Russian missile designer, Alexander Leonov, linked to the development of hypersonic missile Zircon and new generation Indo-Russian Brahmos NG, died at the age of 74 on Sunday, local media reported.
Leonov was CEO and Chief Designer of NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOMASH), the Russian JV partner in New Delhi-based BrahMos Aerospace.
His press service did not disclose the cause of his death or where he died immediately, according to the RBC news portal. Leonov was credited for designing Russia’s Zircon (Tsirkon) – a ship-based hypersonic cruise missile designed to destroy surface and land targets and is part of the 3K22 missile system, which entered service in January 2023.
The missile is launched from surface naval platforms and submarines and can be adopted for coastal defence. Quoting open sources, RBC reported that Zircon is capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 9 (9 times faster than sound) and has a range of 400 to 1,500 km, and can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.
Leonov, decorated with the Golden Star of Hero of Labour, oversaw design work on space systems and missile systems, participating in the development and adoption of the Granit, Vulcan, and Bastion coastal defence systems with the Onyx (BrahMos) missile, including for the Russian-Indian BrahMos JV and, as well as the work on advanced hypersonic vehicles, Russian news agencies said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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