MOSCOW, October 22 (RIA Novosti) – The flagship of Russia’s Northern Fleet, the nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky, set off Tuesday from a naval base in northern Russia for the Atlantic on a regular tour of duty, a fleet spokesman said.
The tour will last for several months and will involve patrol and training missions in the northeast Atlantic and other regions as part of Russia’s plan to restore its naval presence in strategically important areas, Capt. 1st Rank Vadim Serga said.
The cruiser recently returned from a mission in the Arctic, where it took part in exercises around the Novosibirsk Islands, which are located between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea.
The Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great) is the only Russian warship with sufficient capability to thwart large-scale attacks by cruise and ballistic missiles.
The ship is armed with 48 S-300F Fort and 46 S-300FM Fort-M (SA-N-20 Gargoyle) medium-range surface-to-air missiles (with an effective range of up to 200 km), 128 3K95 Kinzhal (SA-N-9 Gauntlet) short-range SAMs, and six CADS-N-1 Kashtan gun/missile systems.
Its radars are capable of detecting and tracking aerial targets at an altitude of 30 km and a range of 300 km.
