According to multiple reports: “Russia’s naval joint force in the Mediterranean will be escorting ships with chemical weapons once they leave Syria”, said a top official at the Russian Chief of Staff, according to the RIA news agency.
Russia’s naval task force in the Mediterranean consists of five battleships: the nuclear-powered missile cruiser, ‘Pyotr Veliky’, the missile destroyer ‘Smetlivy’ and three large landing craft carriers, ‘Yamal,’ ‘Filchenkov,’ and ‘Pobeditel.’
“The decision to provide a ship for the precise task will be taken later, on the basis of the tactical situation in the Mediterranean sea. This decision will be made by the head of the General Staff after a report from the chief commander of Russia’s Navy,” the military official told RIA.
The Kirov class’s Petr Velikiy (Петр Великий) main weapons are 20 P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) missiles mounted in deck, designed to engage large surface targets. Air defense is provided by twelve octuple S-300F launchers with 96 missiles and a pair of Osa-MA batteries with 20 missiles each.
Pyotr Velikiy also carries some S-300FM missiles and is the only ship in the Russian Navy capable of ballistic missile defense. Other weapons are the automatic 130 mm (5.1 in) AK-130 gun system (except in Kirov which had two single 100 mm (3.9 in) guns instead), 10 21-inch (533-mm) torpedo/missile tubes (capable of firing SS-N-15 ASW missiles on later ships) and Udav-1 with 40 anti-submarine rockets and two sextuple RBU-1000 missile launchers.
Meanwhile Russia has already delivered 75 up armored trucks to Syria, along with other equipment that will be employed in the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Monday (source: Russian military steps up to dangerous job of transporting chemical weapons out of Syria https://groundreport.com/russia-military-steps-up-to-dangerous-job-of-transporting-chemical-weapons-out-of-syria/).
This comes days after there was a report about fighting between Syrian government troops and militants from the Al-Nusra Front and the Army of Islam going on “just 100 meters away” from a chemical facility in the Sukkari neighborhood in the Homs Governorate.
It has been reported that roughly 1,290 metric tons of hazardous materials are going to be destroyed in international waters on board an American ship, the MV Cape Ray, which right now is docked in Portsmouth being fitted with two special chemical weapons neutralization systems.
So far only Russia has committed military forces on the ground and at sea to ensure the safety and security of Syria’s deadly chemical weapons stockpile. This in an effort to avoid war which could engulf the entire region and the world into war, amid the U.S. threat to take unilateral military action in Syria.