SEVASTOPOL, May 20. /TASS/. The crews of the Guards missile cruiser Moskva and the frigate Admiral Grigorovich repelled a notional enemy’s air attack in drills, the Black Sea Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.
The drills ran at the Fleet’s Black Sea combat training ranges. Under the command’s design, the naval group set course for its naval base after successfully fulfilling the tasks of searching for an enemy submarine.
During the warships’ transit, the shipborne air defense combat posts detected the notional enemy’s aircraft simulated by the crews of two Su-30SM fighters from the Black Sea Fleet’s naval aviation and air defense forces. After spotting the naval group, the pilots delivered a strike against the warships, dropping targets that simulated air attack weapons, the press office said in a statement.
"The ships’ air defense systems were readied for their combat employment and the personnel engaged radio-electronic and visual camouflage means. After the targets were identified and they came within the destruction range, the air defense teams practiced eliminating the enemy by the ship’s air defense capabilities, firing artillery guns against the air targets," the press office said.
"As a result of the firings, all the targets were successfully eliminated at a distance safe for the warships," the statement says.
The cruiser Moskva is the Project 1164 ‘Atlant’ lead ship. As its main armament, the warship carries 16 launchers of P-1000 Vulkan missiles with a strike range of over 700 km. In the second half of 2015, the cruiser led the Russian Navy’s standing Mediterranean taskforce where it was shielding Russia’s Hmeymim airbase in Syria with its air defense weapons. On July 22, 2016, the cruiser Moskva was awarded the naval Order of Nakhimov.
The warships like the Admiral Grigorovich represent a new series of Project 11356R/M frigates (the Project 11357 designation is also used). These frigates are designed to destroy enemy surface ships and vessels, submarines and ground installations, carry out patrols and defend sea lanes. The frigates of this Project are armed with eight launchers of Kalibr-NK cruise missiles that are capable of striking surface, coastal and underwater targets at a distance of up to 2,600 km.
The warships of this Project are also armed with Shtil-1, Palash and AK-630M air defense missile and artillery systems, A-190 100mm versatile artillery guns, torpedo tubes and RBU-6000 rocket launchers. The frigates also have a take-off and landing strip and a hangar for an anti-submarine warfare helicopter (Ka-27 or Ka-31).