MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. The cutting-edge frigate Admiral Gorshkov armed with Tsirkon hypersonic missiles repelled a notional enemy air attack during drills in the Norwegian Sea, the Northern Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.
"The crew of the frigate Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov conducted an exercise to thwart a notional enemy’s aerial attack weapons, aircraft and anti-ship missiles in the Norwegian Sea in adverse weather conditions," the press office said in a statement.
The cutting-edge Russian frigate accomplished its missions during the drills in rough waters of 3-4 points and at wind gusts of 20 meters per second in the Norwegian Sea, the press office specified.
The frigate Admiral Gorshkov carried out the drills with the computer-generated simulation of the tactical situation, notionally destroying the aerial targets with its onboard anti-aircraft weapons. The team of the frigate’s air defense command post accomplished timed procedures of the ship’s maneuvering. The personnel of the combat detection, radio-electronic and anti-aircraft weapon posts practiced issuing and receiving target acquisition data and notionally employing the shipborne self-defense weapons, it said.
The naval task force composed of the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the medium sea tanker Kama is carrying out its combat patrols under the command of Northern Fleet Missile Ships Division Commander Captain 1st Rank Oleg Gladky, the press office reported.
On January 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin handed down an order to the crew of the frigate Admiral Gorshkov to start undertaking combat patrol missions.
Frigate Admiral Gorshkov
The Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov is the Project 22350 lead multi-purpose frigate designed to operate in distant waters. The warship was built at the Severnaya Verf Shipyard (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) and joined the Russian Navy in July 2018. In December 2022, the frigate conducted an inter-fleet transit and arrived at the Northern Fleet’s main naval base of Severomorsk after its routine maintenance at the Kronshtadt Marine Plant.
The frigate Admiral Gorshkov carries the Kalibr-NK missile system as its basic strike weapon. The warship was actively involved in testing Russia’s breakthrough Tsirkon hypersonic missile designed and produced by the Reutov-based Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (part of the Tactical Missiles Corporation).
President Putin said at the Defense Ministry’s enlarged board meeting on December 21, 2022 that the frigate would be deployed to sea in early January to embark on combat patrols with the world’s unrivaled Tsirkon seaborne hypersonic missile systems. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at the time that the frigate was gearing up for its combat patrols in an unplanned area in the World Ocean.