(Reuters) – Russia’s modernised and repaired heavy nuclear-powered missile battlecruiser the Admiral Nakhimov will return to service by the end of 2024 following testing in September of this year, Russia’s state TASS news agency reported on Tuesday.
Russian state media RIA Novosti reported earlier that the ship will be armed with the Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile, a new-generation weapon that along with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle forms the centrepiece of Russia’s hypersonic arsenal.
The warship has been undergoing a repair and a refit to receive long-range high-precision weaponry, Russia’s defence ministry said in late May, TASS reported. It will bolster the country’s Northern Fleet in the Arctic.
Admiral Nakhimov is part of Russia’s Kirov class of nuclear-powered guided-missile battlecruisers, large and heavy combatant warships, designed for warfare on the surface of the water, with their own weapons and armed forces.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Leslie Adler)
