A few days ago, on March 29, we had tracked the Russian Navy tanker Kama sailing in the Red Sea northbound. Most presumably she was sailing with the frigate Admiral Gorshkov after a stop in Djibouti.
They were scheduled to enter the Mediterranean (final destination is Tartus, Syria) early next week.
Instead, today we record, completely unexpectedly, the tanker Kama proceeding into the central Red Sea but heading south.
The ship is proceeding at almost 10 knots of speed on course 151°.
At this point we do not know if it is traveling together with the Admiral Gorshkov or why it is making this unexpected course change.
We will continue to track, as long as possible, the Kama to find out what the ship’s destination will be.
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.