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Russia denies plans to test new missile

Published:Thursday | February 23, 2023 | 12:32 AM
Chinese naval officers attend the Armed Forces Day in Richards Bay, South Africa, on Tuesday. The parade took place as a naval exercise was under way off the east coast of the country with Russian and Chinese navies.
Themba Hadebe
Chinese naval officers attend the Armed Forces Day in Richards Bay, South Africa, on Tuesday. The parade took place as a naval exercise was under way off the east coast of the country with Russian and Chinese navies.

JOHANNESBURG (AP):

The Russian military denied on Wednesday that it was planning to test its new Zircon hypersonic missiles during naval drills off the coast of South Africa this week that will coincide with the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.

China’s navy also is participating in the Indian Ocean exercises, which come at a time when Russia’s relationship with the West is at its lowest point since the Cold War, and ties between China and the United States are under serious strain.

As Russian and Chinese warships prepared in South Africa for their joint drills, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted China’s most senior foreign policy official at the Kremlin. Those meetings showed the strengthening of Russia’s relationship with China and raised concern in the West that Beijing might be ready to offer Moscow stronger support for its war in Ukraine.

Russia’s aims for the naval exercises came under scrutiny because of the involvement of the Admiral Gorshkov, a frigate which is armed with hypersonic missiles and has served as the main test-bed for them. The ship arrived in Cape Town last week emblazoned with the letters ‘Z’ and ‘V’, letters also seen on Russian weapons on the frontlines in Ukraine and which are used as patriotic symbols in Russia.

Russia has said the Zircon missiles can penetrate any missile defence systems by flying at an astounding 7,000 miles per hour (11,265 km/h) — around nine times the speed of sound — to strike targets at sea and on land. They have a range of more than 1,000 kilometres (over 620 miles), Russia claims.

Putin sent the Admiral Gorshkov on a transocean cruise last month in a show of force as tensions with the West escalated over Ukraine. But a Russian navy officer in South Africa said on Wednesday that the exercises would focus on maritime security, including the fight against piracy, and the Zircons would not be fired.

The drills will involve “mutual manoeuvring of the three sides, assistance of the suffering vessel in a disaster, liberation of a captured vessel by the pirates, and artillery fire which, according to our schedule, does not include the firing with the hypersonic missiles,” Capt Oleg Gladkiy said.

The Admiral Gorshkov and a Russian oil tanker for refuelling, a Chinese destroyer, frigate and a support vessel, and a South African frigate will be involved in the exercises, according to a South African military statement released last week.