
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has announced that Admiral Gorshkov frigate test fired Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile.
The firing was conducted as part of the new weapons testing. It was carried out from the White Sea towards a complex naval target position in the Barents Sea.
The anti-ship missile successfully hit the target located at 450km distance away at sea, as per the objective control data. The flight speed of the rocket was over 8 Mach.
Northern Fleet forces operating in the Barents Sea, including the missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov and the frigate Admiral of the Fleet Kasatonov, ensured the firing area was closed.
Last month, Russia carried out the first testing of the Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile from a frigate as part of plans to arm surface vessels and submarines with this missile system.
The Tsirkon missile was unveiled in 2018, which reached active testing stage in 2015. The missile development programme was launched in 2011.
The missile has been was fired from the Northern Fleet’s frigate Admiral Gorshkov for the second time in the White Sea.
In October, air defence (AD) crews on the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF) frigate Admiral Makarov also carried out training to repel the mock enemy air attack.