Russian Navy - News and Analysis

Units of the Russian Black Sea Fleet conducted several drills in the Crimea with BAL mobile launchers. The drills involved detecting surface targets in the Black Sea, providing target data and preparing the mobile launchers for delivering missile strikes. BAL mobile missile system The BAL missile system uses a rocket booster in order to launch a Zveda Kh-35 subsonic cruise missile which is designed to attack warships up to a tonnage of 5,000 tons. The missile itself uses an active radar homing to lock on to its target. The missile goes into a subsonic sea-skimming flight during its terminal approach in order to avoid radar detection for as long as possible. The Kh-35 is an all weather missile which can be used up to a sea state 5 to 6, both during the day and night. As such, the missile can be used a a wide variety of weather conditions and forms an almost permanent threat to ships entering its engagement zone. This missile itself has a range of 120km but this extended t

Today, a task force of the Russian Pacific Fleet left the port of Colombi, Sri Lanka. The task force was made up of the Slava class cruiser RFS Varyag, the Udaloy class destroyer RFS Admiral Panteleyev, and the RFS Boris Butoma sea tanker. The commander of the task force was identified as Rear-Admiral Eduard Mihailov. The ship commanders were reported to be Captain Yureivich Ulyanenko, Captain Vitalievich Antsiferov and Captain Alexandrovich Bondar. The task force arrived at the port of Columbo on December 21 a part of a three month long deployment of port visits and exercises in the Pacific Rim region. The commanding officers of the task force held meeting with Rear-Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne of the Sri Lanka Navy during the four day port visit. RFS Admiral Panteleyev Is is important to notice that the task force was not accompanied with an ocean going sea tug as is custom to deployments made by the Black Sea and Northern Fleets. This could indicate that the ships of th