Northern Fleet Mariners Celebrated Occupational Day

31.10.2011 Northern Fleet (NF) main naval base Severomorsk celebrated the Mariners' Day; festive activities were arranged for navy veterans, servicemen, and their families. NF Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Andrei Volozhinsky congratulated crews of surface fleet.

On the eve of the holiday, the admiral pointed out achievements of NF mariners, especially crews distinguished themselves in 2011. Among the best ones are crews of large ASW ship Vice Admiral Kulakov worthily represented Northern Fleet at the Pomor-2011 Russian-Norwegian naval exercise, large ASW ship Admiral Chabanenko participated in the FRUKUS-2011 four-lateral exercise held in 2011 off the US east coast.

Crew of large ASW ship Severomorsk was mentioned particularly. The ship had spent almost half a year on the anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden. Under her protection, dozens of civil ships avoided pirate attacks and safely delivered thousands tons of cargo.

"Intensity of cruises held by Northern Fleet ships remains high", emphasized Rear Admiral Andrei Volozhinsky. "We can say with confidence that St. Andrew's flag presents wherever Russia's interests are. None of Russian Navy's exercise is conducted without NF surface ships. This fact contributes to integration of Northern Fleet's mariners with other fleets", he added.

Summarizing the training activities, the admiral noted that in 2011 crews of NF surface ships had accomplished a number of difficult and important tasks. Twenty six surface ships have been effectively deployed and performed over 400 training activities which is almost a half of the fleet's overall annual plan. NF mariners have carried out 6 cruise missile launching drills, 45 air defense firing drills, 100 gun and 15 torpedo firings.

Distinguished servicemen were awarded gifts, certificates of merits, and commendations.