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The Northern Fleet frigate Admiral Gorshkov sailed out of Severomorsk just after New Year and headed south outside the coast of Norway on what was announced as a long-lasting world-ocean voyage.
A few weeks earlier, President Vladimir Putin bragged about the frigat’s weapons in his speech to the collegium of military commanders in Moscow.
“In early January next year, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov will enter combat service with the latest, I repeat once again, sea-based hypersonic missile system Tsirkon, which has no analogs in the world,” Putin said.
The Admiral Gorshkov was en route towards Durban where it will join navy vessels of South Africa and China for joint exercise in February. South of the Bay of Biscay, however, the frigate set a course westbound in the Atlantic.
The warship is followed by the Northern Fleet tanker Kama, which unlike the Admiral Gorshkov is sailing with her AIS-tracker on. The tanker is currently in the West-Atlantic, about halfway between Morocco and Florida.
The Northern Fleet tanker Kama is sailing together with Admiral Gorshkov. Mid-Atlantic, east of Florida on Wednesday. Screenshot from exactEarth ShipView
The Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday published a video from the frigate’s computer simulated exercise.
Although not live-fire exercise, the drill sent a clear signal: Russia can bring its hypersonic cruise missiles to the West-Atlantic, far away from home waters.
“In accordance with the training situation, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov worked out the organising of a missile strike launch with a hypersonic Tsirkon-missile at a sea target, a ship of a mock enemy located at a distance of more than 900 kilometers,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The Admiral Gorshkov is the first warship in the Russian navy armed with the Tsirkon missile. Screenshot from Defense Ministry video
The Northern Fleet frigate is the first warship in the Russian navy armed with the new Tsirkon missiles. Tsirkon is a maneuvering anti-ship missile with a range of about 900 km. It flies in a semi-ballistic trajectory and can travel 7-8 times the speed of sound, making it nearly impossible to defend against.
As tensions between NATO and Russia is growing, the simulated launch-exercise in waters west of Florida gets big attention in state controlled Russian media; with top stories in TASS, RIA Novosti and Vesti.
