MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. The advanced frigate Admiral Gorshkov armed with Tsirkon hypersonic missiles completed its passage through the English Channel to continue accomplishing assigned missions in the Atlantic Ocean, the Russian Northern Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

"Today the Northern Fleet’s frigate Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov completed its passage through the English Channel southwards and yesterday transited its narrowest part, the Strait of Dover. The Russian warship will subsequently continue its movement in accordance with its deployment plan," the press office said in a statement.

The frigate’s crew will soon continue accomplishing assigned missions in the designated areas of the Atlantic Ocean. The latest warship has covered a distance of over 2,000 nautical miles since it departed from the Northern Fleet’s main naval base of Severomorsk. The frigate is set to participate in a series of drills with ships of other fleets of the Russian Navy and with warships of foreign navies, the press office said.

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.