Since her arrival in the Mediterranean, the Russian Navy frigate Admiral Gorshkov, armed with hypersonic missiles, has always had limited activity, confined to exercises or, at most, intercepting ships coming from the Black Sea and heading to Tartus.
During all previous sea outings, the ship was always alone, suggesting that these were restricted missions.
However, now the ship is no longer present in Tartus but is accompanied by two other vessels, the corvette Orekhovo-Zuyevo (Buyan class), and the Aleksandrit-class minehunter Vladimir Emelyanov.
The simultaneous absence of these three units leads us to hypothesize that a long-range operation is underway in the Mediterranean, with the three ships heading westward, where the NATO forces are located.
In the eastern Mediterranean, the NATO SNMG2 is present, with at least two American units in the Ionian Sea, while the USS Gerald Ford (CVN-78) Carrier Strike Group is navigating in the southern Adriatic.
In the coming days, we will try to understand if the Russian ships’ mission becomes clearer.