President Vladimir Putin said his country's Air Force will conduct permanent patrols in the Black Sea with MiG-31 fighter jets armed with Kinzhal hypersonic weapons.
"This is not a threat... Based on my instructions, the Russian Aerospace Forces will start patrolling on a permanent basis in the neutral zone of the airspace over the Black Sea, and MiG-31 aircraft will be armed with Kinzhal missiles," Putin said. reporters in Beijing after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Russian Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missile system has a range of over 1500-2000 km and speeds of up to Mach 10, thus targeting anything moving in the Eastern Mediterranean, including the US armada.
The Russian president said bombers would allow the Russian Air Force to monitor developments in the Mediterranean, especially given the escalating conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas in the region.
"I emphasized that this is not a threat, but we will exercise visual and weapons control of what is happening in the Mediterranean Sea," the Russian president said.
The US has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
It is also known that the Russians are deeply disturbed by the presence of the USA in key parts of Greek territory. "In the event of a threat, Russian Tu-22M3 bombers are ready to strike NATO forces in the Mediterranean within two hours.
In addition, taking into account the modernization of the infrastructure of the Khmeimim airbase in Syria, three Tu-2025M22 can be permanently stationed at this airfield, which will significantly strengthen the Russian military presence in the region," a Russian expert previously said, and this is true because Moscow always attaches great importance to what is happening both in the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Also known as "the last whistle" - last whistle (because of the supersonic whistle that you hear fractions of a second before hitting its target) the missile has a range of more than 2,000 km, a speed of more than 10 Mach and although it has a warhead weight (piercing ) at 500 kg, has the ability to maneuver to avoid A/A countermeasures at every stage of its flight, while Western sources have officially admitted that there are still no countermeasures for this weapon!
The Pentagon decided to extend the presence of the USS Gerald R. Ford battle group, which was expected to be completed soon.
This marks an unexpected development for the United States Navy's newest aircraft carrier, as it is currently deployed alongside other warships in the Israeli region.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has approved the expansion of the deployment of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa operational area, also known as 6th Fleet.
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Sainh relayed that information in a statement.
He said there that the task force was nearing the end of its six-month deployment to the US European Command's area of responsibility, but did not specify the exact length of the extension.
The aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower is also set to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean, meaning it will be operating for a longer period of time than we originally expected with the USS Ford.
