Russia's Northern, Baltic Fleets leave bases in operability test - Moscow
"About 80 surface vessels, submarines and support ships of the Russian Navy have left their permanent bases and started the deployment phase in the designated areas of the sea ranges in the Barents and Baltic Seas. Several groups of all-arms naval forces have been put together at the moment," it said.
While proceeding toward the deployment areas, the ships are training the organization of air defense and short-range anti-submarine defenses and the arrangement of communications.
"In the course of anti-submarine defense training, in cooperation with naval aviation, the participants are training to look for, detect, and track submarines using bottom, towed, and dunking sonar stations. The ship crews have conducted onboard damage control exercises, practicing the norms stipulated by the Surface Ship Damage Control Manual and the Submarine Damage Control Manual," it said.
As concerns the Navy, special significance during the operability test will be attached to efficiency of operational control of the naval forces and the practicing of interoperability of coastal forces, naval groups, the all-arms naval forces, and the naval aviation, the Defense Ministry said.
"The Navy's coastal forces will perform a set of duties as part of an anti-amphibious operation, during which the countering of a simulated enemy's amphibious assault landing and anti-amphibious coastal defense measures will be practiced," it said.
The large landing ship Minsk of the Baltic Fleet and the large landing ship Yamal of the Black Sea Fleet passed the Bosporus Strait on Tuesday to join the Russian Navy task force permanently deployed in the Mediterranean, the Navy Staff said.
"The large landing ships Minsk and Yamal, which departed from Novorossiysk yesterday, successfully passed the Bosporus Strait during the night. They will pass the Dardanelles Strait tomorrow, enter the Aegean Sea and head towards the ships of the Navy's Mediterranean force," a Staff spokesman said.
The voyage is made in the course of rotation of the Russian Navy task force permanently deployed in that region, he noted.
The heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky, the heavy aircraft carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov, the destroyer Admiral Levchenko, the large landing ships Azov, Georgy Pobedonosets, Olenegorsky Gornyak and Kaliningrad and the reconnaissance ship Admiral Fyodor Golovnin are accomplishing missions in the Mediterranean.
They are supported by the medium-sized tugboats Altai and Nikolai Chiker and the tankers Sergei Osipov, Iman and Kama.
The floating workshop PM-56 is on duty in the Syrian port of Tartous. Captain 1st Rank Oleg Peshkurov is the task force commander.
Voice of Russia, Interfax