Russian Destroyer Escorts Fifth Convoy Thru Gulf of Aden

26.06.2012 Being on the anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, Northern Fleet (NF) destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov taken supplies from the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) oceangoing tanker Ivan Bubnov in the Red Sea and started escorting the fifth commercial convoy.

The convoy consists of two tankers, a bulker, and a dry cargo ship flying flags of Panama, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia. Crew of the Russian destroyer will escort the foreign merchant ships from the southern part of the Red Sea to assigned point in the Arabian Sea through the Gulf of Aden. The cruise will be 1,200 miles long. All commercial ships took aboard teams of Russian marines attached to the destroyer. Under way the trip, deck-based helicopter Ka-27 will carry out patrol flights.

Destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov left NF main base Severomorsk on Apr 6 and in May started anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden and near the Horn of Africa. Throughout the cruise, the ship has covered over 13,000 nautical miles and escorted 10 vessels flying flags of Marshall Islands, Malta, Panama, Turkey, and Liberia.

Earlier on, other NF warships were deployed to the region and escorted commercial convoys; they are nuclear-powered missile cruiser Petr Veliky, destroyers Severomorsk, Admiral Chabanenko, and Admiral Levchenko. In total, NF mariners have escorted over 30 multinational convoys with more than 100 Russian and foreign merchant vessels, prevented capturing of cargo ship Ocean Diamond and tanker United Emblem attacked by pirates in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.