(PresidentialDaily.org)- On Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that it successfully test-fired two Moskit anti-ship cruise missiles in Peter the Great Bay in the Sea of Japan, the Associated Press reported.
According to the Defense Ministry, the exercise included other warships as well as naval aircraft.
The Moskit cruise missile, which is called SS-N-22 Sunburn by NATO, is a supersonic anti-ship cruise missile that can be armed with either a conventional or nuclear warhead. It is capable of flying at three times the speed of sound and has a range of 155 miles.
Peter the Great Bay borders the Russian Pacific Fleet headquarters at Fokino near Vladivostok, about 430 miles from Japan’s Hokkaido Island.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Yoshihiko Isozaki, Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, told reporters that Tokyo is continuing to monitor Russia’s military operations as Moscow has been increasing activity in the region.
However, Tokyo will not lodge a protest with Russia over Tuesday’s exercise, according to foreign ministry official Tasuku Matsuki.
Matsuki said while Peter the Great Bay is in the Sea of Japan, it is considered the Russian coast. Matsuki said it is Moscow’s increasing military activities around Japanese coasts that are concerning, and Tokyo is “watching them with great interest.”
Last week, Japanese officials lodged a protest with Russia expressing serious concern about a March 18 joint military exercise in which Russian and Chinese warships conducted shooting drills off the coast of two disputed islands in northern Japan, which the Japanese call the Northern Territories, the Associated Press reported.
According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the Defense Ministry spotted six Chinese and Russian warships firing machine guns about 118 miles west of Hokkaido Island into the Sea of Japan.
Afterward, the Russian and Chinese ships then crossed between Hokkaido and Honshu Island along the Soya Strait.
