US-led troop stormed the Baltic Sea to beef up Washington’s presence, triggering a surprise appearance from a Russian warship in what looked like a dress rehearsal for a hotly predicted World War 3. Canada’s HMCS St John’s also sailed into the Baltic territory to support its US ally, the USS Mount Whitney, Sputnik News reports. Both ships are taking part in the annual NATO BALTOPS drills along with ships from other nations, with exercises expected to last until mid June.
France and the UK in particular have also deployed more troops, tanks and helicopters to the Baltic region to up NATO’s presence there, much to the outrage of Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly voiced concerns over the expansion of NATO’s presence along the Russian border and along nations such as Poland and Romania.
Moscow warned NATO nations of the risks of triggering an accidental escalation, adding military operations would now be monitored.
Recently, Moscow tracked a US Air Force Boeing RC-135V spy plane as it made its way close to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad along the Baltic Sea.
This follows news Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Moscow is developing its missiles to reach terrifying new hypersonic speeds to be used by Russian armed forces.
The company’s CEO Alexander Leonov told Moscow state agency TASS: “The general trend in the improvement of cruise missiles is towards bringing their speed to the hypersonic level and increasing the range of their operation. “This is the direction we are heading towards.”
The missile has a maximum speed more than 2.5 times the speed of sound.
Newsweek reports it also has a range of 400 miles.
Mr Leonov said his company was in the process of looking to “make the missile universal both from the viewpoint of its targets and the launch platform that is used”.
Generally, hypersonic flight is defined as being five times faster than the speed of sound.
President Putin also this month tested the MiG-31 fighter jet armed with the hypersonic Kinzhal, also known as the ‘dagger’ missile, developed by the Russian Defence Ministry for use by the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Russia said the weapon will reach speeds of Mach 10 – double the speed of the new missile Mr Leonov and his team are working to achieve.