After a few days’ stop in Djibouti the Russian Navy tanker Kama left the African port heading north into the Red Sea.
She is currently proceeding at a speed of about 7 knots and is likely to transit the Suez Canal at the beginning of the next week. Her final destination is the Syrian port of Tartus.
We have no clear evidence but it is highly likely that along with the tanker Kama the Russian Navy frigate Admiral Gorshkov is also sailing in the same waters. The two ships have in fact been sailing together since their parentage from the port of Murmansk in early January.
The two ships have been operating in the North Atlantic before participating in an exercise in South Africa and stopping over in Iran and are now precisely headed to Tartus to operate in the Mediterranean.
The Admiral Gorshkov would be armed with new Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles. This would be the first time Russia has deployed an armed unit with this type of weaponry in the Mediterranean theater.