Russia plans permanent deployment of cruise-missile ships in the Mediterranean

Russian Navy ships carrying the new, advanced Kalibr cruise missiles will be permanently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea, RT reported a Russian Navy admiral saying.

Corvettes from the the Black Sea Fleet will be supporting anti-terrorist operations against the Daesh in Syria.

The Project 21631 corvettes that are part of the Black Sea Fleet are equipped with the Russian long-range cruise missile system Kalibr-NK which was in use against the Daesh since October 2015. In a different milestone from November 2015, the Russian Navy said it successfully fired Kalibr missiles from a submarine submerged in the Mediterranean.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the submarine Rostov-on-Don hit two objectives in the Syrian Raqqa province on December 8.

In another instance, reifying western impression of an increased activity of the Russian Navy vessels, the Russian Navy announced that ships from its Caspian Flotilla ships would visit three foreign ports located in the Caspian Sea water zone in 2016.

According to the Caspian Flotilla Commander Rear Admiral Igor Osipov, the ships will participate in the strategic command-and-staff Kazakh-Russian naval exercise Caucasus–2016. The ships will also pay visits to Bandar Anzali in Iran, Aktau in Kazakhstan and Baku in Azerbaijan as well as participate in the international naval exhibition Adex 2016.

In total, 3-4 ships, including Dagestan and Tatarstan missile ships will participate in the visits.

Moreover, ship detachment of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to visit the Astrakhan port in the second part of 2016.