The first group of navy ships and submarines that participated in the naval parade in St. Petersburg last weekend sailed under Denmark’s Great Belt bridge Friday morning on their way north to the Kola Peninsula.
Never has such powerful group of warships from the Northern Fleet previously been in the Baltic Sea. The vessels, now about to sail around Scandinavia in an inter-fleet transfer back to the bases along Russia’s northern coast to the Barents Sea, consists of three nuclear powered submarines, one diesel electric sub, a frigate, a large anti-submarine ship, a missile cruiser, a large landing ship, and several support vessels.
“During the inter-fleet transition to the permanent deployment bases, the ships of the Northern Fleet will perform a set of combat training missions as part of various naval formations, which will be formed for the purpose of conducting a number of tactical exercises,” the press service of the Northern Fleet informs. […]
In 2019, also in what first was believed to be a regular inter-ship transfer from the Baltic Sea to the Kola Peninsula, the Russian navy suddenly launched a larger exercise west of Scandinavia consisting of about 30 ships and submarines from the Northern Fleet, Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet.
Named “Ocean Shield 2019”, the exercise was first announced to take place in the Baltic Sea, but with the surprise groupings in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea, Norway’s Defence Chief at the time said the objective of the exercise was to block NATO’s access to waters around Scandinavia. […]
In previous years, the Northern Fleet has sailed one nuclear-powered submarine to participate in the main naval parade in St. Petersburg. This year’s move, with three nuclear-powered submarines sailing the Baltic Sea, including one ballistic missile sub, was an extraordinary event. Läs artikel