A Russian defence official suggested on Monday that Russia could station its new Zircon hypersonic missiles in the Syrian port of Tartus, where, they said, it could hit any target in the Mediterranean Sea.
The chairman of the State Duma Defence Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, said in an interview with Russian media that “Zircon missiles can dock [in the port of Tartus], which will cover the entire sea.”
Russia leased the Tartus naval base from Syria in 2017, for a period of 49 years. The site is Russia’s only base in the Mediterranean, and is mostly used to deliver supplies to its mission in Syria and to repair its warships.