RUSSIAN MILITARY 

Intro: Russian military practice live firing and anti-submarine combat in Baltic and Arctic

The Russian navy is continuing anti-submarine combat drills in both the Baltic and the Arctic Barents Sea.

Russian military operations have been steadily increasing this year, but the ones being carried out in the Baltic and Arctic are the most controversial. This is largely due to Russia sharing both regions almost exclusively with NATO member states.

Its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad borders Poland on one side and Lithuania on the other, while the other four countries who have a territorial claim on the Arctic besides Russia are all NATO members – Denmark, Norway, Canada and the United States.

Russian corvette Soobrazitelny: one of the ships of the latest class of corvettes of the Russian Navy, the Steregushchy class. It joined the Baltic Fleet in 2011. The ship is fitted with anti-aircraft capabilities.

Intelligence suggests that the Russian Baltic Fleet have sent out three corvette vessels (Boykiy, Stoykiy and Soobrazitelny), along with two anti-submarine Ka-27PL helicopters, against its designated enemy. This is believed to be the Russian submarine Vyborg.

The Vyborg is deemed by military analysts as one of the quietest submarines in the world, and in this instance was tasked to disrupt the ships’ landing attempts.

After tracking the submarine, the corvettes and helicopters managed to force the submarine to resurface. The ships have also practiced live artillery fire at naval and aerial targets.

Russia’s North Fleet also sent out vessels to simulate anti-submarine combat, dispatching the Brest and Yunga anti-submarine ships into the Barents Sea near the Arctic. These crews have performed torpedo attacks and have fired the reaction engine-bomb installation RBU-6000, which relates to the fleet’s anti-submarine rocket launcher.

Intelligence also suggests that the ships have conducted practice with its naval fleet air-arm, not just with the Ka-27 helicopters but also with its Il-38 maritime patrol plane. They have also performed refined communications and simulated emergency responses on board.

In May, too, Russia practiced live firing in the Baltic when it sent its largest amphibious hovercraft into the region. Defence officials from both Lithuania and Estonia have expressed concern at the number of Russia military exercises near their territories, saying that such snap drills by Russia could be exercises being used as cover for a larger redeployment of forces toward their borders.