Russian forces in the Mediterranean - Wk03/2022

Task Force Composition

As reported by OSINT at the morning of January 22


Weekly Brief

Naval activity is starting to increase following several weeks of almost no reported movements. The presence of the Harry Turman carrier strike group in the Eastern Mediterranean, escorted by the SSGN USS Georgia will most likely result in the Russian Navy monitoring the movements of the carrier group.
The arrival if the Intelligence collection vessel Vasiliy Tatishchev on January 20th appears to reflect this mindset. The vessel can be expected to monitor the tri carrier exercise between the US, French and Italian Navies that is scheduled in the near future. This exercise is shedulled to take place in February and will see the deployment of the USN Harry Truman, the French Charles de Gaulle and the Italian Cavour.
A large influx of amphibious landing vessels is expected to take place next week. Three Ropucha class landing vessels of the Baltic Fleet appear to be heading to the Mediterranean, an possible the Black Sea. A second group of the Northern Fleet, made of one Ivan Grenn class and two Ropucha class vessels, could also be heading towards the Mediterranean.

Daily Events

January 15
Rescue tug Epron, former MB-26, passed the Bosporus and headed towards the Mediterranean [1] [2]. The vessel is the last of the Prut class and is equipped with heavy-duty derricks, submersible recompression chambers, rescue chambers and bells [3]. The vessel reportedly carries a group of the Institute of Biology of Sevastopol who will conduct ecologic studies in the Mediterranean basin [4].

January 20
Intelligence collection vessel Vasiliy Tatishchev passed the Strait of Gibraltar during the evening and transited into the Mediterranean [5].

January 21
The Russian ministry of Defense announced that Buyan-M class corvette RFS Orekhovo-Zuyevo is restarting her passage through the Bosporus and Dardanelles and is heading towards the Mediterranean. The vessel will join the Russian task force operating from Tartus [6]. She will replace the Buyan-M class corvette Vyshny Volochyok [7].

The passage of the vessel through the Bosporus was later visually confirmed [8] around 16:46 local time [9].

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