Russian Navy - News and Analysis

August 07 The Artic Group held an anti-submarine exercise in the eastern part of the Barents Sea with the frigate Admiral Kulakov launching her Ka-27 anti-submarine helicopter. The helicopter deployed her dipping sonar during this exercise [ link ]. The vessels of the Artic Group were observed sailing in various formations during this exercise [ link ]. August 13 The Admiral Kulakov & Alexander Otrakovsky arrived at the settlement of Dudinka with the Admiral Kulakov being moored and the Alexander Otrakovsky located in the middle of the Yenisei river [ link ]. Fleet oiler Sergey Osipov and rescue tug Altay were observed south of Dikson, most likely at anchor [ link ].

  Daily Events September 18 Pacific Fleet The Pacific Fleet launched the Finval-2023 exercise which will take place in the Chukchi and Bering Seas, as well as on the Chukotka Peninsula. The exercise is led by the Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral N. Yevmenov and is aimed to protect communications along the Northern Sea Route [ 1 ]. The first part of the Finval Exercise was focused on defeating a simulated group of hostile warships in the northeastern part of the Bering Strait. Slava class missile cruiser Varyag, the Oscar II attack submarine Tomsk and Bastion coastal missile batteries took part in this drill. Each unit was observed launching at least one missile against the simulated group. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, all missiles struck their assigned targets [ 2 ]. The Varyag launched a P-1000 Vulcan missile [ 3 ], the Tomsk launched a Granit anti-ship missile [ 4 ] and the Bastion coastal missile battery launched an Onyx cruise missile [ 5 ]. The Finval e...

  Daily Events April 10 The Russian armed forces announced that they will start drills in the Artic Region. The exercise will involve the deployment of 1.800 troops, 15 warships and 40 aircraft [ 1 ]. April 11 Grisha class anti-submarine warships Snezhnogorsk and Brest departed the Kola and will hold anti-submarine exercises in the Barents Sea. Both vessels were escorted by the Sonya class minesweepers minesweepers Yadrin and Solovki Yunga who provided protection against sea mines during the transit. Both anti-submarine vessels will train together with nuclear submarines of the Northern Fleet and anti-submarine naval aviation [ 2 ]. April 12 Naval aviation in the form of Tu-142 patrol aircraft and Ka-27M anti-submarine helicopters were deployed in a joint exercise wit the Grisha class anti-submarine warships Snezhnogorsk and Brest in the Barents Sea. The aircraft searched for a simulated enemy submarine in a designated area and transmitted the target information...

August 10 Boris Chilikin class tanker RFS Sergey Osipov departed the port of Severomorsk around 8AM UTC. The vessel will act as support ship for the Udaloy class destroyer RFS Severomorsk together with the rescue tug Pamir [ 1 ]. All three vessels will be deployed for a two moth long voyage across the Northeastern Passage in the Artic Ocean. Other ships will join the deployment with the Russian Ministry of Defense reporting that, in total, eight ships will take part in the exercise [ 2 ] [ 3 ]. The deployment will be held under the command of Vice-Admiral Oleg Golubev, the Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet. All three vessels were reported heading north of Murmansk and into the Barents Sea by 18:50 UTC [ 4 ]. It appears that all three vessels are heading towards a training area which is located north of Murmansk and west of Severny island of Nova Zemlya [ 5 ]. The training area is closed by NOTAMs for artillery exercises which are to be held between August 11 and 13. August 16 Udal...

Summary In the second half of March, an unusual deployment of Ropucha class landing ship-tank (LST) was observed in the North Sea and Mediterranean. Two separate groups, one of the Northern and Baltic Fleet each, were observed heading into the Mediterranean for an unknown deployment.  The first group to be observed consisted of all three operational active Ropucha's belonging to the Baltic Fleet, escorted by the Steregushchy class corvette RFS Boiky. All four vessels passed the English Channel on March 20, suggesting a normal training cruise up the Atlantic Ocean. However, on March 22 a second group passed through the North Sea and these vessels were identified as the Ropucha class LSTs RFS Aleksandr Otrakovskiy and the RFS Kondopoga under the escort of rescue tug SB-406. This group comprised half of all Ropucha class LSTs in service in the Northern Fleet. Only four of the five Ropucha's were heading to the Mediterranean, with the RFS Minks being spotted heading back into the B...

Several Russian news agencies reported that the 10th shipyard at Polyarny was prohibited of using the 'Plavdok-18' floating dock. The dock, build in 1976, is located at Pala Bay of the Kola Bay and is used for repairs and maintenance to vessels. The Polyarny District Court of the Murmansk Region reportedly prohibited the 10th shipyard, part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, to operate the floating dock on the grounds that no proper confirmation of the technical condition was registered. The court therefor concluded that safety and navigational requirements were not met. Attempts by the management of the 10th Shipyard to file a complaint at the Murmansk Regional Court did not resulted in a lifting of the prohibition as the Murmansk Regional Court agreed to the findings of the Polyarny District Court. When it comes to floating docks, the Northern Fleet has a troubled history in recent years. Most notably the sinking of the PD-50 floating dock in November 2018. The PD-50 sa...

Pictures shared by Twitter user Rob Lee showed a lack of progress on the construction of the new dry dock for Russia's only aircraft carrier RFS Admiral Kuznetsov at the 35th ship repair plant. The shared photos showed the construction site on June 12, 2020 as well as how it looked at November 2019. The Google Earth picture of June 12 revealed that very little to almost no progress was made in the construction of the new dry dock during this period. Construction progress during November 2019 Since the sinking of the PD-50 floating dry dock, Russia does not have the facilities large enough to dock its only aircraft carrier, RFS Admiral Kuznetsov. The solution put forward was to take two existing dry docks and tear down the concrete barrier that separated them. This would create a dry dock large enough in with to dock the RFS Admiral Kuznetsov whenever work and maintenance is needed on the ships hull located under the water line. A contract was given to the IEC (Inves...