Russian Navy - News and Analysis

Summery Following a three year hiatus, the Baltic Fleet once again held an Ocean-Shield exercise. Contrary to previous editions, the security situation for Russia in the Baltic Sea has changed significantly due to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Most countries in the Baltic are now on a hostile footing with Russia, compared to a more neutral stance in 2020 when the last Ocean Shield exercise took place. Also, al countries surrounding the Baltic Sea are now either part of NATO or in the process of joining NATO.  Ocean Shield 2023 will thus have to take this new security situation in account. Daily Events August 2 The Russian Ministry of defense reported the start of the Ocean Shield 2023 naval exercise in the Baltic Sea. The exercise is held under the leadership of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov and will involved around 30 warships, 20 support vessels and 30 aircraft of the naval aviation [ 1 ]. Altay class fleet oiler Yalyna is expected to make ...

Between August 03 and August 12, the Russian Baltic Fleet held its annual Ocean Shield exercise in the Baltic Sea. While smaller compared to last years exercise with only 30 warships participating, this years exercise was more imported because it was build on an offensive scenario, rather then a defensive one during 2019. While the opposing forces of the 2019 exercise were identified as NATO forces, the opposing force of the 2020 was less easy to identify. The offensive nature and swift sea control gained by the Russian Navy could suggest an surprise attack against NATO when few NATO forces are present, or the attack against a neutral country with significant maritime forces, most likely Sweden. Just like last year, the exercise could be monitored through the use of open source material but unlike 2019 there was less available. Especially the Russian open sources such as state media and main newspapers were less vocal about the progress of Ocean Shield 2020. The third part of the exerc...

Exercise Ocean Shield 2019 (Okeanskiy Shchit 2019) was a large scale naval exercise conducted by the Baltic Fleet between August 1 and 9, 2019. The exercise involved the participation of over 49 warships from two seperate fleets, Northern and Baltic, with 20 support ships. Over 58 aircraft from both the army and naval aviation were involved as well. Russian figures state that a total of 10,634 military personnel were involved in the exercise. The exercise involved a wide variety of smaller exercises which will be discussed in further detail below in the form of daily reports followed by a general summary. The first focus of the exercise was to check the combat readiness of the Russian naval forces in the Baltic Sea and the further development of skills in operating the fleet and executing different tasks during this exercise. Several Russian sources state that lessons learned from naval deployments at the Syrian coast were also taken into account during the exercise. A lot of info...