Employees of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia and the police conducted a search in the Moscow office of the Scientific Research Center of Automated Design Systems (NDC ASK). This enterprise is part of the “Tactical Missile Arms” corporation, which produces “Zircon” hypersonic missiles. The company “Sirena-Travel”, the developer of the Russian air ticket booking system, was also searched. The offices of these companies are located in the same building, but the details of the search are not yet reliably known.
“The media note that nothing is reported about the reasons for the operational measures in the office of the NDC of the ASK, however, the search in “Sirena-Travel” “related” to “large-scale attacks on the IT infrastructure of the Russian ticket booking system, which the company faced last autumn”, — from the publication of the publication “Krym.Realii”.
According to journalists, employees of the special services are studying the technique to establish “possible vulnerabilities”, and also remove the necessary documents of the company. After the inspection, security forces took five people out of the building.
A representative of the Research Center for Automated Design Systems stated that the detainees are not their employees. Are the searches in the NDC ASK and “Sirena-Travel” related to each other? unknown.
“Everyone paid attention to it, it is clear why. In 2023, a large number of engineers and Russian physicists were prosecuted in connection with accusations of “treason”. And — these were almost all developers of hypersonic missiles. Most of them are employees of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 16 people were sent to prison there, — says Doctor of Law, Professor of the Free University Ilya Shablinsky.
In 2023, three scientists from the Novosibirsk Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, who were involved in the creation of hypersonic aircraft, were arrested under the charge of “treason”. And at the end of December 2023, their co-author — Vladislav Galkin was arrested in Tomsk.
The investigation into the chief designer of the Research and Research Enterprise of Hypersonic Systems, a professor at the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic, has been ongoing for several years. Oleksandr Kuranov University. He is also suspected of “treason”.
Over the last 20 years, more than 30 scientists have been persecuted and arrested in the country.
“This is very similar to the Stalinist period, when the largest aircraft designers were sent to camps, and then they somehow worked in a hut, literally — the situation is being reproduced. Let us recall that one of the Russian physicists after died in prison of a serious illness. We see the complete arbitrariness of the security forces. I have the idea that maybe something will move in the brain of some physicists and they will understand that you cannot work for these people”, — emphasizes Shablinsky.
According to experts, Ukraine has at its disposal the necessary means to shoot down the Russian ZM22 “Zircon” anti-ship hypersonic missiles.
“ It's a very, very fast weapon. If we're talking about “Zircons”, it's about Mach 8-9. It's incredibly fast. However, when these missiles enter the impact trajectory, their speed drops. It becomes subsonic. Somewhere Mach 4.5. And it is at this moment that we can use our complexes, which are anti-ballistic. These are SAMP/T, Patriot, which can inflict powerful damage and knock down even such a weapon. — explains the spokesman of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ilya Yevlash.
It is known about three cases of the use of “Zircon” missiles. on the territory of Ukraine: December 30, 2023, February 7 and March 25, 2024. All missiles were shot down.