Russian Navy - News and Analysis

On April 20 and 21, Naval Infantry units of the Baltic Fleet conducted a large scale amphibious exercise in the Kaliningrad Oblast as part of a scheduled two-day exercise. The exercise involved embarkation, transit and landing against a defended coast. The exercise started on April 20 at the port of Baltiysk in the Kaliningrad Oblast where 20 BTR-82A Infantry Fighting Vehicles were loaded on board of several amphibious warships. The amphibious warships were identified as the Ropucha class LSTs RFS Kaliningrad and RFS Korolev, supported by the Zubr class hovercraft RFS Eugene Koreshov. At least two Dyugon class landing craft were also seen taking part in the exercise. BTR-82 being loaded on board of the Ropucha class LSTs The fast loading of the Ropucha class LSTs was made possible due to the fact that these vessels were moored in the Mediterranean way, meaning stern towards the land and the bow pointed to the open sea. Not only allows this way of mooring an easy and fast de...

Aircraft of the Baltic Fleet conducted air training operations in the Kaliningrad Region on Tuesday February 29. The training was conducted by by Su-30SM and Su-24M aircraft and involved training in air to air refueling from a IL-78 tanker aircraft. A total of 15 aircraft participated in this training over the course of several days. The air-to-air refueling training was conducted both day and night and pilots conducted these exercises both while flying single or as a pair. Air-to-air refueling is considered to be a stressful event as the pilot of the receiving aircraft needs to focus himself during the approach and make a successful connection. The pilot also needs to be focused in order to maintaining position and speed during the transfer of fuel. By conducting these training, the Baltic Fleet Aviation makes sure that its pilots maintain the necessary skills needed to perform air-to-air refueling under a wide range of conditions. Air-to-air refueling allows Russian aviation...