Russia plans to use its Mach 9 Zircon hypersonic missiles, capable of flying at 6,670 mph with a range of 625 miles, during scheduled "war games" with China and South Africa, the Daily Mail reported Friday.

"During the upcoming exercise with the navies of South Africa and China, a training launch of a Zircon hypersonic missile will be carried out, to be the first-ever during an event of this kind," the Daily Mail reported a source told Russian state news agency TASS.

According to the report, the nuclear-capable missile will have a "test launch" from the Russian warship Admiral Gorshkov during the scheduled war games off the coast of South Africa, taking aim at a "surface target" more than 310 miles away.

In January, the frigate conducted a test "electronic launch" of the missile in the Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. coast, the report said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent the warship carrying the new missile technology out to sea in early January to travel international waters in a show of strength as the war in Ukraine slogs on.

The Associated Press reported at the time that the new missiles can penetrate anti-missile defenses by flying nine times faster than the speed of sound, giving the Russians long-range capabilities to strike enemy targets quickly and with precision.

"We are aware of the reports regarding the Russian launch of a frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov. We will continue to routinely monitor its activities as we maintain awareness of our operating environment," Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Roger Cabiness told the Associated Press on Jan. 5.

"While we do not comment on specific capabilities or speculate on hypotheticals, the Department of Defense remains confident in our ability to deter our adversaries and defend United States national security interests at any time, in any place."

According to the report, the ship was sent from Russia to "patrol the Atlantic and Indian oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea."

"This is a message to the West that Russia has nuclear-tipped missiles that can easily pierce any missile defenses," pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov wrote in a commentary.

The Admiral Gorshkov, commissioned in 2018, circled the world's oceans in 2019, covering some 35,000 miles.

According to the report, the United States has been working on its own "hypersonic" systems designed to strike enemy targets anywhere in the world within an hour.

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