20 warships, submarines, support ships, and airforce. More than 8,000 servicemen participate as Russia early Friday morning sent out its largest fleet to the Barents Sea for war games.
The exercise comes unsurprisingly. Earlier this week, the Barents Observer reported about Russia issuing NOTAM-warnings for two larger areas north and south of Norway’s Bear Island in the western Barents Sea. “Impact areas for missiles,” the warning to civilian air traffic said.
Norway, worried about consequences for its search- and rescue capabilities in the waters around Svalbard, can do nothing to hinder Russia from using the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as an impact area for cruise missiles. This is international waters. […]
Fighter jets took to the skies Friday morning north of the Kola Peninsula to protect the 20 warships now sailing out. A few nuclear-powered submarines are also involved, as well as coastal missile systems and special military formations.
Within a few days, several of the warships will be deployed for the Northern Fleet’s annual Arctic Expeditionary Vessel Group, aimed to protect the Northern Sea Route. Such forces normally sail to the Kara- and Lapte Seas, for landing training at the Taimyr Peninsula and New Siberian Islands. However, in 2021, the large anti-submarine warship “Severomorsk” together with support vessels suddenly turned west in the northern Barents Sea and sailed to the west coast of Svalbard.
Thereafter, the navy group continued east to its predicted route north of Siberia. Läs artikel