Russian vessel participating in Manoeuvres with China and South Africa while carrying hypersonic missiles

As US missile Defences get more advanced, Putin has warned that one day they may take down Russian nuclear missiles. Russia sees these weapons as a method to get past these Defences.

According to the Russian state news agency TASS, a Russian cruiser outfitted with the latest hypersonic cruise missiles will take part in joint drills with the militaries of China and South Africa in February.

It was the first time the involvement of the Zircon missile-equipped frigate “Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov” had been acknowledged officially.

According to Russia, the missiles have a range of more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) and travel at nine times the speed of sound. Along with the Avangard glide vehicle, which entered military service in 2019, they serve as the centrepiece of its hypersonic armament.

The agency quoted an unnamed defence source as saying, “‘Admiral Gorshkov'… will proceed to the logistic support station in Syria's Tartus, and then take part in combined naval drills with the Chinese and South African militaries.”

The drills, which will take place from February 17 to February 27 close to the port cities of Durban and Richards Bay, according to the South African National Defense Force, are intended to “strengthen the already burgeoning connections between South Africa, Russia, and China.”

After a drill in 2019, the exercise will be the second involving the three nations in South Africa, the defence force noted in its statement.

This month, when President Vladimir Putin deployed the “Gorshkov” to the Atlantic Ocean to send a message to the West that Russia would not back down over the conflict in Ukraine, it conducted Manoeuvres in the Norwegian Sea.

As US missile defences get more advanced, Putin has warned that one day they may take down Russian nuclear missiles. Russia sees these weapons as a method to get past these defences.

Since hypersonic weapons travel at speeds higher than five times the speed of sound and are more difficult to detect, China, Russia, and the United States are competing to create them.