The 6,670 mph Zircon have a range of some 625 miles (Picture: east2west/Reuters)
This is Vladimir Putin’s ‘unstoppable’ warship armed with hypersonic cruise missiles as it sails towards Britain in the Norwegian Sea.
A promo showed on Zvezda TV, owned by the Russian defence ministry, released today shows the Admiral Gorshkov ‘repelling a simulated enemy’s air strikes’ six days in to its controversial mission.
The vessel is armed with Zircon, or Tsirkon, hypersonic missiles – a relatively new weapon in Russia’s arsenal.
Putin has previously stressed the Zircon has ‘no analogues in any country in the world.’
Norway’s Armed Forces stressed that though the Admiral Gorshkov is legally in international waters ‘they are closely monitoring any movements’.
The purpose of the military exercise was to ‘test the air defence circuit, air and electronic lighting systems, anti-aircraft fire systems, tactical camouflage electronic warfare systems and air defence circuit control systems.
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The Admiral Gorshkov is legally in international waters (Picture: Zvezda news/east2west news)
A video of the mission was released by the Russian Defence Ministry (Picture: Reuters)
According to the commentary, the tasks were ‘achieved’, and the warship is ‘ready to repel air attacks from different altitudes and directions’.
Russian media said missile tests would be carried out during the current voyage without saying at what stage.
The Admiral Gorshkov is due to sail to the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and the Mediterranean equipped with one of the world’s most deadly weapons.
The new mission is also expected to take the vessel past the coast of the UK as it heads on a ‘show of strength’ mission during Putin’s failing invasion in Ukraine.
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But the Russians have not disclosed the exact routing or timings.
Moscow has boasted that the ship is ‘the most dangerous enemy of surface ships in the world’s oceans’.
Captain Igor Krokhmal has said previously: ‘No one will see the missile launch or its flight. They will only see when the missile hits the target.
‘A surface target, a coastal target. I don’t think there will be anything to counter this in the next few years.’
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Putin says the missiles have ‘no analogues in any country in the world.’
