Russia’s Pacific Fleet recently held a cruise-missile drill which saw guided-missile cruisers, nuclear submarines and mobile coastal defense missile systems launch a total of seven cruise missiles at surface targets in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Sava-class cruiser Varyag launched the P-1000 Vulkan anti-ship missile while Oscar-class submarine Tomsk launched the Granit anti-ship cruise missile. The exercise was joined by the Bastion mobile coastal defense missile system which launched the P-800Oniks, a supersonic anti-ship cruise missile.
While the video shared by the navy never shows the missiles striking the two targets, the Pacific Fleet service said all seven missiles successfully hit their targets.
Vostok 2018
The live-fire drill took place shortly ahead of the all-service military drill Vostok which is set to be Russia’s largest military exercise in nearly four decades.
Russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu announced that Vostok-2018 would take place in Siberia early September. Joined by Chinese and Mongolian service personnel, the exercise will feature close to 300,000 troops, and units from the Pacific and Northern Fleets.
The exercise will be the “largest event since the Zapad-81 maneuvers,” media reports quoted Shoigu as saying.