Aboard the SAS Mendi, Richards Bay, South Africa (AP) — A Russian military helping to conduct questionable joint military exercises this week with Chinese and South African forces off the coast of South Africa says war games won’t come with Russia testing one of its toughest weapons, a “Tsirkon” hypersonic missile. Capt. Oleg Gladkly said the previously planned joint naval training began Wednesday and will continue for five days.
In January, a U. S. official told CBS News that the timing of the exercise, which will continue Friday as the global marks a full year of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine, had “worried” the United States. David Feldmann, U. S. spokesman U. S. Embassy in South Africa said the timing would at least provide South Africa with a diplomatic challenge.
That “challenge” gave the impression of being on the verge of acquiring a new point of gravity in February, when a Russian state news company said the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov would participate in the drills and conduct a “training launch” of a Tsirkon missile. , aiming at a “surface target” more than 310 miles away. The news firm TASS quoted “a source close to the Russian defense industry” but noted that Russian officials had not officially shown the plan.
At a press conference on Wednesday about the South African frigate SAS Mendi, the Russian commander showed that Admiral Gorshkov, who is equipped with complex hypersonic missiles, would participate, but would not fire one of the weapons.
Russia has been at the forefront of efforts by many countries, including the United States, to expand hypersonic glide missiles, which would arguably be harder to stumble upon and intercept due to their speed and maneuverability. So far, Russia and China have surpassed U. S. efforts. U. S. weapons systems. Moscow claimed in March 2022 to have used a hypersonic missile in Ukraine in what would have been the first use of the weapon on a battlefield, US officials never proved that a missile had actually been used. Two months later, the Russian Defense Ministry was quoted via TASS as saying it had conducted a successful verification of a Tsirkon, hitting a target about 620 miles away.
Several years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the Tsirkon as a new elegance of “invincible” Russian weapons.
Apart from the missiles on board, the presence of the Russian warship in South Africa is controversial. He moored along the South African coast for bloodhounds to see on Wednesday adorned with symbols strongly linked to Putin’s war on Ukraine.
CBS News asked Captain Gladkly, the Russian commander, about the white letters painted “Z” and “V” that were noticed on the frigate’s blackened funnel, and he temporarily rebuked the question, telling us “not to read it. “Through a translator, he insisted that the trainings that began Wednesday were just a friendly naval exercise.
“We hear South Africans asking, ‘Is this the right time for South Africa to help Russia in the fight against the invasion of its sovereign neighbor, Ukraine, and does South Africa need to be related to the ‘Z’ symbol painted on the side of the frigate Admiral Gorshkov?'” said Feldmann in an interview on Power FM Zim South Africa. “The symbols ‘Z’ and ‘V’ are symbols of hatred and death. Are they symbols next to which a South African shipment deserves to float?”
South Africa’s joint operations leader, Lt. Gen. Siphiwe Lucky Sangweni, said plans for naval training began two years ago, contradicting earlier reports that they were planned for Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
Senior Capt. Sun Honglin, a Chinese military commander who attended Wednesday’s press conference, said his country had sent a frigate, a destroyer and a source to participate in the joint exercises.
The symbolism of China and Russia became stronger as allies of the military fully visual on Wednesday. Both countries have been pushing for years to expand their success on the African continent.
Some security analysts have argued that through the war games, South Africa is giving Russia a level to show off the might of its military as it fights in a brutal war that has claimed the lives of thousands of Ukrainian civilians.
In January, on one of the 3 trips made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Africa, he attended a press conference with his South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor, who rejected a message from a journalist asking him to repeat the call of many Western countries for South Africa to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.
Pandor such a call would be “simplistic and childish. “
South Africa among 35 countries abstained in a United Nations vote in October in which member countries overwhelmingly condemned Russia’s invasion and called for a withdrawal.
South African officials have emphasized, while protecting Mosi II trainings, that such trainings with other countries are common, adding 4 with the United States since 2011.
Pandor told the January news conference that trying to save South Africa from conducting joint army training with countries of his selection amounted to “an abuse of foreign practices. “
South Africa’s National Defence Force said 350 members of the army would take part in the exercises, and that its navy’s priority would be fishing and anti-piracy in the Indian Ocean.
Feldmann, at the U. S. Embassy, pointed to a debate in South Africa over why the media had access to only a press conference about the war games, rather than direct access to the exercise, as is the case.
The training, dubbed “Mosi II,” which means smoke in the Tswana language, drew widespread complaints that South Africa has abandoned its supposed neutrality in the war against Ukraine. African and Chinese helicopters and Chinese and Russian high-speed boats. They will also practice maneuvers to save ships from piracy and clear sea mines.