Baltic Fleet Deployments - Wk 43/2020

October 19

Russian training ship RFS Smolny has passed through the Danish Strait and entered the Baltic Sea. The vessel is on a training cruise between Sevastopol and Kronstadt. She carries around 250 naval cadets on board who are gaining practical experience at sea. The vessel is scheduled to stop in the port of Baltiysk, Kaliningrad on Wednesday October 21st. [1]

October 20

The first batch of 20 new recruits have been assembled at the military commissariat of the Kaliningrad region. These recruits are the first of among 1.000 conscripts called up in the autumn draft. Most of these recruits will join the various naval vessels and coastal defense units of the Baltic Fleet while 10 will serve in the Presidential Regiment of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation with another 20 recruits joining the fourth research and production company at the Yantar Baltic shipyard. [2]

October 21

The airborne training for around 100 reconnaissance officers serving in the armed forces stationed in Kaliningrad has been completed. The training started of with theoretical and practical training for folding the main and reserve parachutes, followed by training on simulators in order to reach the permission to jump out of aircraft.
The practical training started during the summer period with jumps out of Mi-8 helicopters and An-26 aircraft. The jumps were conducted in full combat gear at heights between 600 and 2.000 meters. The troops were instructed to defend their landing zone and construct fortified positions upon landing. The later stages involved jumping with a delayed opening of 10, 15 and 20 seconds after exiting the aircraft with firing at simulated enemy forces during the decent landing. This later phase took place at the Khmelevka training ground. [3]

As reported on Monday October 19th, the training vessel RFS Smolny entered the port of Baltiysk in Kaliningrad for a replenishment stop. The vessel is expected to be back in Kronstadt by the end of the month. [4]

October 23

A surface task force, comprised of the Steregushchy class corvettes RFS Steregushchy and RFS Boiky, supported by an unidentified tanker, held an anti-terrorist exercise in the Skagerrak as part of their North Sea deployment. Both corvettes were taking on fuel and water from the tanker while its security detail trained in  defending the task force from terrorist attacks at it lay at anchor during the replenishment. [6]

Russian conscripts in service in the armed forces stationed in the Kaliningrad Region who have reached the end of their conscription are being transferred to the reserve forces. Administrative units have started in advance to create the legal documents for travel by road, air and railway for the discharged conscripts. According to Russian law, the conscripts have the legal right to a free travel to the place of registration upon dismissal from active service. [5]

October 24

Bastion coastal missile systems reportedly struck a simulated task force in the Baltic Sea as part of a deployment exercise. The missile unit conducted a 50 kilometer road march towards their assigned firing positions. Mi-24 combat helicopters flew reconnaissance missions in front of the unit as it marched towards its firing positions in search of enemy forces who could ambush the Bastion missile systems. Su-27 fighters flew overhead to protect the missile systems against a possible airstrike. [7]

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