Russian Navy - News and Analysis

Russia announced recently that it plans to use vessels equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles for patrols in the western Atlantic Ocean. The use of these missiles are expected to be a new form of strategic deterrence which Russia hopes will restore the strategic balance  with the United States. During the Cold War, strategic patrols were conducted by submarines equipped with ballistic missiles. The use of such vessels was obvious as only SSBN submarines were able to mount a credible deterrent by striking the adversary from an unexpected location with as little warning as possible. The decline of the Russian navy in recent decades has greatly reduced Russia's ability  to mount these patrols and create a credible deterrence  against the United States. By using Kalibr class cruise missiles, Russia hopes to restore this balance.  These missiles are a more potent deterrent against the United States as it is more difficult to intercept compared to ballistic mis...

On January 2 the TASS news agency reported that nine new hydrographic vessels are to be built for the Russian Navy. According to the TASS news agency, the construction program is as follows: 'Two small Project 19910 vessels, two large Project 23040G hydrographic boats, two newest large Project 19920 hydrographic boats and three large Project 23370G large hydrographic boats will be built for the Russian Navy before 2021, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service said on Wednesday. "The construction of two small Project 19910 hydrographic vessels is currently underway," the ministry said, adding that they would become part of the Russian Navy in 2019 and 2020 respectively. In addition, the Nizhegorodsky Teplokhod shipyard is working on two large Project 23040G hydrographic boats. The shipyard earlier completed the construction of two similar vessels for the Baltic Fleet. The Navy will get the new ships in 2019. Project 19910 hydrographic vessel Meanwhi...

As 2018 came to an end, three new naval ships were commissioned into the Russian Navy. On December 16 the Baltic Fleet commissioned the first of the Project 22800 guided missile corvette RFS Mytishchi. On December 20, the Black Sea Fleet commissioned the Project 22160 patrol ship RFS Vasily Bykov and on December 25 the Pacific Fleet commissioned RFS Gromkiy, the sixth ship of the Project 20380 Steregushchy class corvette. Tough this rapid pace of commissioning warships was more the result of coincidence instead of careful and deliberate planning, it nevertheless showed the current evolution of the Russian Navy as a whole. First, Russia is showing itself committed to modernize its fleets with large amounts of smaller but potent warships. The RFS Mytishchi is the first of a batch of 20 corvettes to be build while Project 22160 involves two batches of three patrol vessels. The Steregushchy class envisions a total of 24 ships to be build with the first batches to be build for the Balt...