Russian warship with hypersonic missiles grabs eyeballs in South Africa

Russia’s state-of-the-art multi-role frigate Admiral Gorshkov, now equipped with the “unstoppable” Zircon hypersonic missiles, is turning heads in faraway South Africa even as the world focuses on the approaching first anniversary of the Ukraine conflict this Friday.

Thousands of miles from the battle zone, Russia, China and South Africa have kicked off war-gaming naval exercise ‘Mosi II’ off the coasts of Durban and Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal which interestingly coincides with the one-year anniversary of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The tripartite naval exercise will see the participation of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet, the South African National Defence Forces and the Naval Forces of the People’s Liberation Army of China (PLA Navy).

Analysts believe that the timing of the exercise, the arrival of the frigate ‘Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov’ – and also the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov in South Africa – delivers Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strong message to the West, of forging alliances in new territories.

“During the exercise, it is planned to focus on working out the tasks of countering threats to maritime security, demonstrating the readiness of the forces of the fleets to jointly maintain regional peace and stability,” the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

On its way, the multi-purpose Russian ship with guided missile weapons, and accompanied with Kaliningradneft-class support oil tanker Kama, also made a business call to the port of Cape Town located on the Atlantic coast and then visited Durban on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

As reported by IndiaNarrative.com earlier, Admiral Gorshkov, the most modern warship of the Russian Navy, is capable of effectively fighting surface, air and underwater adversaries, as well as striking land and coastal targets at a distance of over 1000 kilometers.

In January, Moscow announced that Admiral Gorshkov, now equipped with Zircon hypersonic missile system, is all set to embark on a long-distance sea voyage across the Atlantic and Indian oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea, which is the first instance of it going on combat duty with the formidable weapon aboard.

China, meanwhile, has sent PLA Navy’s 42nd escort fleet comprising of guided-missile destroyer Huainan, missile frigate Rizhao and Hoh Xil Lake ship to the exercise which will continue till February 27.

As the Russian and Chinese ships docked in its waters, South Africa has defended the joint drills, insisting that it is not abandoning its neutral position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and that the exercise would “strengthen the strong bonds between the countries”.

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