Russian military general takes rare action against US after Moscow conducts hypersonic missile drills

On December 4, the US military said that Air Force General CQ Brown, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a phone call with Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov last week.

The Russian Navy's Admiral Gorshkov frigate during exercises in the Mediterranean Sea. (Source: Russian Defense Ministry )

According to Reuters news agency, Mr. Brown's spokesman said the two military leaders discussed many global and regional security issues, including the Ukraine conflict.

The phone call took place on November 27 at the request of the Russian Defense Ministry. This is the first time the two sides have spoken since Mr. Brown took office, succeeding General Mark Milley last year.

According to ABC News , the two sides discussed Washington's permission for Kiev to use its long-range ATACMS missile against targets inside Russia, as well as Moscow's next test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) against a target inside Ukraine.

Moscow said the IRBM attack was in retaliation for Ukraine being allowed to use ATACMS missiles inside Russia.

ABC News also reported that during the phone call, Russian General Gerasimov warned Washington that Moscow would conduct hypersonic missile tests in the eastern Mediterranean and that US Navy ships should stay away from the target area for safety reasons.

According to the spokesman, Mr. Gerasimov asked Mr. Brown not to proactively announce the content of the call until December 4, after Russia announced that Russian warships in that area had launched hypersonic missiles at an undisclosed target area in international waters of the Mediterranean.

The Russian hypersonic missile test took place in the eastern Mediterranean, an area where the US Navy has three amphibious ships carrying 2,200 Marines as well as destroyers providing missile defense for Israel.

Regarding Russia's hypersonic missile test, on December 3, the country's Defense Ministry issued a statement saying: "The frigates Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Golovko fired Zircon hypersonic missiles while the diesel-electric submarine Novorossiysk launched Kalibr cruise missiles at the target location at sea."

At the same time, from a designated area on the Mediterranean coast, a Bastion coastal missile system launcher launched an Onyx cruise missile.

Although the ministry did not disclose the launch location, ABC News said the cruise missile could have been fired from Russia's base in Tarsus, Syria, Moscow's only overseas naval base.

Russia affirmed that the drills in the Eastern Mediterranean were conducted "in compliance with the existing norms of international law, as well as the agreements of the Russian Federation with states on preventing incidents at sea outside territorial waters, as well as in the airspace above those territorial waters."

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