The Russian navy is kicking off several simultaneous exercises, with ships
from the baltic and black seas and its northern fleet sorting from their
home ports across Europe, the Kremlin has announced.
More than 140 warships and support vessels along with 60 aircraft and a
total of 10,000 personnel will participate in the drills, according to the
Russian Mod.
But the exercises have sparked alarm within western nations in light of
tensions over Ukraine.NATO countries have been surging out ships and
aircraft and are accelerating planned deployments in response to Russia's
massing of troops on its border with Ukraine.
Ireland protested over Russia's plans to hold live-fire exercises 240
kilometers off the Irish coast in February.
Irish fishermen have pledged to disrupt the exercise, according to the BBC.
"We are letting them know that we will be fishing in our traditional fishing
areas and if this has an impact on their exercise this would be considered a
peaceful protest," Patrick Murphy, chief executive of the Irish south and
west fish producers organization said.
The press service of the Russian northern fleet issued two releases on
Wednesday. the first set a detachment of warships and support vessels of the
northern fleet entered the barons see as part of an exercise with the arctic
expeditionary group of forces and troops.
The release stated that among the ships were the cruiser RFS marshall
Eustinov 055 destroyer RFS vice-Admiral Kilakov, 626 frigate RFS admiral
flota Kasatinov for 61 along with support vessels accompanying them.
A royal Norwegian air force P-3C Orion from no 333 squadrons cited the three
warships which were accompanied by replenishment ship VYAZMAand tug sb 406,
the Norwegian armed forces said in a Tuesday release.
The Russian ships were seen at December 20th Tuesday heading south along the
Norwegian coast in the waters north of fine art by the P-3C which was on a
routine patrol mission. the Norwegian military did not disclose how long the P-3C followed the Russian ships, nor did it provide details on the eventual
destination of the vessels, though it is likely these ships are heading to
the planned live-fire exercise off Ireland.
It noted that Russia had announced it would be conducting major naval
exercises.
A second release from Russia's northern fleet said it started exercises with
the arctic expeditionary group with northern fleet commander admiral
Alexander Moisey overseeing the drills.
During the exercise, the Russian navy will evaluate the level of
preparedness of the command and control organizations of the northern fleet
in planning and conducting actions to resolve crisis situations in the
arctic ocean region, according to the news release.
The Russian navy will also assess the coordination of actions of tactical
groups of ships and units of coastal troops in the course of joint training
in combat missions in the arctic and test out tactics and methods for
conducting naval combat in combat operations in the arctic, the northern
fleet said.
It will also test out issues in protecting the communications of the
northern sea route and the protection and defense of northern fleet
garrisons. the drills will include countering imaginary terrorist groups as
well as how to block and destroy them.
In addition to Etsy exercises, a number of exercises will take place at
coastal ranges in the Mormons region.
Up to 30 ships and submarines from the northern fleet along with twenty
aircraft and one thousand two hundred personnel will be involved in the
exercise. The ships participating include destroyer rfs several morses 619,
frigate RFS Admiral Flota Subitskogo Gorshkov for 54, and landing ship rfs
Ivan gran 135.
More than 20 ships of the black sea fleet had departed from Sevastopol and
navarasisk for exercises in the black sea, the press service of the southern
military district said in a Monday news release.
Minesweepers RFS ivan gauliabetz, RFS Ivan Antonov and RFS Valentin pickle
carried out mine clearance for corvette's RFS sestolets 071 and RFS Yeast
054 and two corvettes carried out anti-submarine drills for combating
simultaneous sea and air attacks on them, according to two releases issued
today.
Frigates RFS admiral lesson for 90 and rfs lady 861 and corvette's RFS
Graveron 600, RFS ingestion 630 and RFS neighbor Resny Cheyney 953 carried
out air defense exercises with Russian air force fighter aircraft from the
southern military district.
