The Russian fleet will be equipped with a new Zircon hypersonic cruise missile “in the coming months,” Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Sunday, in full offensive in Ukraine, while participating in a naval parade in St. Petersburg, after signing a decree in which it establishes that the main challenge of the Russian naval doctrine is the pretensions of dominance of the United States in the world ocean.
The Russian fleet “is capable of inflicting a withering response on all those who decide to attack our sovereignty and freedom”for which military equipment “is constantly being improved,” Putin assured during a naval parade.
The president cited, among others, the “ultramodern Zircon hypersonic missiles that do not have any obstacles” and specified that “their delivery to the Russian armed forces will begin in the coming months,” the AFP news agency reported.
With a maximum range of about 1,000 kilometers, the Zircon cruise missiles belong to a family of new weapons developed by Russia. that Putin describes as “invincible” and that have been approved in stages since October 2020.
According to Putin, the Amiral Gorchkov frigate will be the first Russian military equipment to have these missiles. He added that the ship’s deployment area would be chosen based on “Russia’s security interests.”
“The Homeland is a sacred notion for all of us, and defending it is a duty and the meaning of life for each of us,” the Kremlin leader added.
The naval parade in St. Petersburg in which the Russian president made these announcements brought together more than 40 ships and submarines and some 3,500 military personnel in the former imperial capital on the occasion of the Day of the Russian Fleet, widely celebrated throughout the country.
In Sevastopol, in Russian-annexed Crimea, the festivities were canceled after a drone attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters left six injured.
Local authorities accused “Ukrainian nationalists” of having carried out the attack, but Ukraine denied this, the French agency said.
Before leading this parade, Putin approved by decree the new Russian Naval Doctrine and the updated version of the Naval Regulations, during a ceremony at the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, inside the Peter and Paul Fortress.
In this new doctrine, it is pointed out that the dominance claims of the United States in the world ocean are the main challenge for Russia.reported the Sputnik news agency.
The document lists ten “major challenges and threats to national security and sustainable development” for Russia in the maritime field.
Number one is “the United States’ strategic drive for dominance in the world ocean and its global influence on the evolution of international processes, particularly those related to the use of ocean transportation routes and energy resources.”
The doctrine also singles out Washington and its allies “for limiting the Russian Federation’s access to world ocean resources and vital transportation routes.”
Among other challenges, the naval doctrine mentions the territorial claims on coastal and insular territories by other States; the expansion of the Atlantic Alliance towards the Russian borders and the increasing number of naval exercises that it carries out in waters close to Russia; as well as the desire of the United States to ensure the overwhelming superiority of its naval forces, along with the increase in the naval combat capabilities of other nations.
Armed conflicts in geopolitically important areas or in countries that have access to the world ocean also pose a threat to Moscow; economic, political, military and other pressures that could undermine the effectiveness of Russia’s naval operations; efforts to weaken Russia’s control over the Northern sea lane and expand other states’ naval presence in the Arctic; attempts to change the rules that regulate international navigation for their own benefit; the escalation of international terrorism, maritime piracy and illegal transport by sea of weapons, narcotics, psychotropic drugs and their precursors, chemical and radioactive substances.
