Russia’s warship with Putin’s hypersonic missiles ‘simulates a massive attack as it sails towards the nearby US coast’

A Russian warship armed with hypersonic missiles has simulated a massive attack while sailing towards the US coast.

The guided-missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov was closely monitored by the NATO Navy on its maiden voyage armed with Zircon weapons at 6,670 mph.

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An unconfirmed report by the Russian Telegram channel states that it was “detected on radar in neutral waters of the Atlantic — within an effective range of the salvo launch from the US coast.”

The ship has now conducted simulated attacks using the nuclear-capable Mach-9 missiles, official Russian military news website Zvezda reports.

The computer simulation exercise was conducted while Admiral Gorshkov was somewhere in the “western Atlantic,” the website says.

An attack on an “imaginary enemy” was made about 600 miles away, with the crew “demonstrating a high level of coordination”.

Russia has previously boasted that the missiles are “unstoppable”.

Footage released by the Russian Defense Ministry shows sailors conducting drills aboard the ship, although it’s unclear if it was the actual drill.

The ship is scheduled to take part in exercises with the navies of China and South Africa in February this year.

It comes after the Royal Navy intercepted the Gorshkov as she sailed through the English Channel earlier this month.

More recently, the Russian ship was shadowed by the Portuguese Navy in the Atlantic and was scheduled to circumnavigate Africa.

But radar surveillance sites indicate that the Gorshkov made an unexpected deflection.

According to one report, it had separated from its escort tanker ship Kama in the Bay of Biscay and headed west.

The Kama continued south and passed the Azores.

The missile frigate was tracked as far as 800 miles west of the Portuguese island of Flores in the Azores, ItaMilRadar suggested.

At that range, it would still be out of US range due to its deadly zircons.

The frigate also carries Kalibr missiles, a type used in the Russian war in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin hailed it as “an important, if not significant, event” when the ship departed from the Arctic naval base at Severomorsk on January 4.

He made it clear that this mission was intended as a show of force against the West.

And he boasted that NATO couldn’t match its “latest generation” of hypersonic firepower.

The zircon “doesn’t have an equivalent in any country in the world,” he said.

Putin continued: “I am sure that with such a powerful weapon we will reliably protect Russia from potential external threats and help protect our country’s national interests.”

Moscow has boasted that the Gorshkov is “the most dangerous enemy of surface ships on the world seas” now that it is armed with the new hypersonic missile.

Last year, the Zircon was tested by the Admiral Gorshkov in the Barents Sea and hit a target 625 miles away in the White Sea.

The frigate’s captain, Igor Krokhmal, previously said: “No one will see the missile launch or its flight.

“You will only see when the missile hits the target.

“A surface target, a coastal target. I don’t think there will be anything to counter that in the next few years.”

The state-of-the-art frigate Gorshkov was to sail in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean on this mission.

Over the next month, it was scheduled to take part in exercises with the Chinese and South African navies near the ports of Durban and Richards Bay.

The Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate HMS Portland shadowed the Russian warship and accompanying tanker Kama as they sailed near Britain on January 11.

Previously, the Norwegian Navy had paid close attention to Putin’s hypersonic mission.

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