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MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. The Russian Black Sea Fleet’s advanced small missile ship Zelyony Dol armed with Kalibr cruise missiles will soon be replaced by the same-type vessel Serpukhov in Syrian waters, a source in the Navy’s headquarters told TASS on Thursday.
The Zelyony Dol will be replaced by the Serpukhov small missile ship at Russia’s naval facility in Tartus in Syria in one and a half or two months, he added.
"The Zelyony Dol will stay in Tartus for a month and a half or two months, after which it will be replaced by the same-type vessel Serpukhov," the source said.
The small missile ship Zelyony Dol built for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet by the Zelenodolsk Shipyard arrived in Sevastopol in November 2015.
The ship left for its Mediterranean mission on February 13. Before that, it was involved in the sudden combat readiness check of Russian Southern Military District forces.
The Zelyony Dol and the Serpukhov are the fourth and fifth Project 21631 (Buyan-M) small missile ships armed with Kalibr missiles.
The Project 21631 small missile ship is also equipped with the A-190 100mm gun, the AK-630-2 Duet small-caliber antiaircraft artillery system and 3M-47 Gibka launchers.
The Kalibr missile system delivers strikes on naval and ground targets using cruise missiles.
The Russian Navy currently has a permanent naval grouping in the Mediterranean Sea, which includes the missile cruiser Varyag armed with the Fort-M air defense system (the naval version of the S-300 antiaircraft missile complex) and the large antisubmarine warfare ship Vice-Admiral Kulakov.