TASS said that a Russian frigate armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles will participate in joint exercises in South Africa in February.
A Russian warship is equipped supersonic cruise weapon will participate in exercises with the navies of China and South Africa in February, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.
Monday’s report was the first to officially mention the involvement of the Russian frigate Admiral of the Soviet Fleet Gorshkov.
The destroyer is armed with Zircon missiles, flies at nine times the speed of sound and has a range of more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).
These missiles form the heart of Russia’s hypersonic arsenal, which together with the Avangard glider entered combat service in 2019.
“’Admiral Gorshkov’… will arrive at a logistical support point in Syria’s Tartus, and then participate in joint naval exercises with the Chinese and South African navies,” TASS said in its report, citing an unspecified defense source.
The South African National Defense Force said the exercise will take place from February 17-26 near the port cities of Durban and Richards Bay on South Africa’s east coast.
It said on Thursday that the joint exercise was intended to “strengthen the well-developed relations between South Africa, Russia and China”.
The defense force added that the exercise will be the second exercise involving the three countries in South Africa, following the exercise in 2019.
the Gorshkovs organize exercises in the Norwegian Sea earlier this month after President Vladimir Putin sent it to the Atlantic Ocean in a signal to the West that Russia would not back down. war in ukraine.
Putin has previously said that the frigate and its Zircon missile “have no analogues in the world”.
The Russian president sees the weapon as a way to penetrate the increasingly sophisticated US missile defense system.
Russia, the US and China are racing to develop hypersonic weapons, seen as a way to gain an advantage over any adversary thanks to their speed and maneuverability, characteristics that make them difficult to detect. than.
