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Black Sea Fleet frigate to join Russian Navy’s Mediterranean task force

The Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Grigorovich is returning to the Mediterranean
Admiral Grigorovich frigate  Alexander Karpushkin/TASS
Admiral Grigorovich frigate
© Alexander Karpushkin/TASS

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. The Black Sea Fleet’s frigate Admiral Grigorovich will join the Russian Navy’s permanent task force in the Mediterranean Sea on December 2, Fleet spokesman Vyacheslav Trukhachyov said on Friday.

"Today the crew of the Black Sea Fleet’s frigate Admiral Grigorovich has started accomplishing missions of its planned passage from Sevastopol to the Mediterranean Sea. The warship left the fleet’s main naval base immediately after the ceremony devoted to the beginning of a new training year," the spokesman said.

The frigate is expected to join Russia’s Mediterranean task force currently comprising about 15 Black Sea Fleet warships and support vessels on December 2.

The Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Grigorovich is returning to the Mediterranean Sea, Fleet Commander Admiral Alexander Vitko said in an interview with the Russian Defense Ministry’s newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda.

"Currently, the submarines Veliky Novgorod and Kolpino are performing missions in the Mediterranean Sea, to which the frigate Admiral Grigorovich is also heading," the admiral said.

It was the frigate Admiral Grigorovich, from the board of which the Black Sea Fleet practiced the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle for the first time as part of drills in 2017, he said.

"For the first time in the history of the Black Sea Fleet, the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle was practiced from the board of the frigate Admiral Grigorovich. The aircraft-type drone both took off and for the first time in the Navy’s history landed on the warship’s deck at sea," the admiral said.

The Russian Navy’s warships started accomplishing missions in the Mediterranean Sea as a permanent task force from December 2012. In November 2016, the frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired at least three missiles from the Mediterranean Sea against terrorists’ facilities in Syria.

It was reported in late June that the frigates Admiral Essen and Admiral Grigorovich and the submarine Krasnodar delivered a strike with six cruise missiles from the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea to destroy large arms and ammunition depots of the Islamic State terrorist grouping (outlawed in Russia) in Syria.

The Admiral Grigorovich is the Project 11356 lead blue-water frigate. The frigates of this type displace about 4,000 tonnes, develop a speed of 30 knots and have a sea endurance of 30 days.

The Admiral Grigorovich is armed with Kalibr-NK cruise missiles, the Shtil-1 self-defense missile system, the A-190 100mm artillery gun, air defense artillery, a rocket launcher and torpedoes and can also carry a deck-based Kamov Ka-27 or Ka-31 helicopter.

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