ROSTOV-ON-DON. July 13 (Interfax-AVN) - The new missile frigate Dagestan will enter service with the Caspian Flotilla by the end of the summer, a spokesman for the Southern Military District staff informed Interfax-AVN on Friday.
"It is the first ship in the Russian Navy to be equipped with a Kalibr-NK missile system which is a new entry on the Russian defense industry's product line," he said.
The Dagestan crew covered over 1,300 miles (about 2,500 kilometers) on its way from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea.
During a series of state tests in the Black Sea the Dagestan performed successful missile launches at a surface target with the Kalibr-NK system.
"The state testing will continue in the Caspian Sea and the crew has been assigned a task to launch a smart missile and hit a littoral target at a distance of 100 nautical miles," the source said.
The state tests are to be finished by the end of the summer and the ship will enter service with the Caspian Flotilla. The ship will join the Caspian Flotilla's task force in the autumn in the Kavkaz 2012 maritime warfare exercise.
The Dagestan was built at the Zelenodolsk Shipyard. It differs seriously in the weaponry available from its predecessor, the Tatarstan. It is the first Russian missile frigate to carry a Kalibr-NK missile system capable of launching several types of smart missiles at surface and littoral targets.