MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. The Northern Fleet’s frigate Admiral Golovko has entered the Mediterranean Sea in its long-distance deployment, the Fleet’s press office reported on Saturday.
"Today the Northern Fleet’s frigate Admiral Golovko accomplishing long-distance deployment missions has transited the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea," the press office said in a statement.
In the Mediterranean Sea, the missile frigate’s crew will accomplish missions as part of the Russian Navy’s standing taskforce, it specified.
Earlier in the Atlantic waters, the frigate’s crew practiced hunting down and tracking a notional enemy’s submarine in interaction with the crew of a deck-based Ka-27 anti-submarine warfare helicopter, it said.
The naval sailors also sharpened the skills of protecting the ship from enemy torpedoes during transit at sea, using a computer simulation of the tactical situation and notionally destroying an attacking adversary torpedo. The ship’s anti-submarine warfare team carried out timed operations to detect an attacking torpedo and striking it by an interceptor weapon, it specified.
The frigate Admiral Golovko embarked on its long-distance deployment on November 2 with its departure from the Northern Fleet’s main naval base of Severomorsk. In total, the missile frigate has covered a distance of about 3,000 nautical miles.
The Admiral Golovko is the Project 22350 third-built and second serial-produced frigate. The Project 22350 lead and first serial-built frigates Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov and Admiral of the Fleet Kasatonov are now operational in a formation of the Northern Fleet’s missile ships. All the three frigates have been built at the Severnaya Verf Shipyard in St. Petersburg in northwestern Russia.
Frigates of this Project carry Kalibr-NK and Oniks cruise missile systems as their basic strike weapons. The frigate Admiral Gorshkov took part in the testing of Tsirkon hypersonic missiles.