Petr Veliky and Moskva reached the South China Sea

11.05.2010 Northern Fleet (NF) flagship heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Petr Veliky and Black Sea Fleet (BSF) Guard missile cruiser Moskva having passed the Strait of Singapore on Monday reached the South China Sea to proceed with training tasks of long-range cruise, reports RIA Novosti.

During 42 days of the cruise started from NF main base Severomorsk Petr Veliky covered over 11,000 nautical miles. BSF flagship missile cruiser Moskva sailed off Sevastopol on Apr 9 to conduct exercises in the World Ocean carries out training tasks along with Petr Veliky for about a week.

"The ships have successfully passed the Strait of Singapore. The basic difficulty was the narrowness of the strait and hard traffic in both directions", informed RIA Novosti citing a NF official.

He pointed out that navigation officers of the ships worked strenuously while passing the strait, since the cruisers had to maneuver in difficult conditions of congested waters between Singapore and Indonesia.

The Strait of Singapore is located between the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea. It is limited by Malay Peninsula and Singapore Island at the north and by Riau Archipelago at the south. The Strait of Singapore and the Strait of Malacca connect Asia with Europe and Middle East; it is one of the world's largest traffic arteries, since over 50,000 vessels pass the straits every year carrying a half of oil produced and one third of goods consumed worldwide.

Heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Petr Veliky is a flagship of Northern Fleet; the ship sailed off Naval Base Severomorsk on March 30 to participate in large-scale ocean exercise along with Russian task force. Port calls and joint drills with Russian military partners are scheduled during the cruise. Petr Veliky is the world's biggest non-carrying warship. The cruiser is designed for destruction of large sea surface targets, antiaircraft and antisubmarine defense of naval formations in distant regions of the World Ocean.

BSF flagship Guard missile cruiser Moskva sailed off Sevastopol on Apr 9 to conduct exercise in the World Ocean. Cruiser Moskva is the lead ship of Project 1164 Atlant which comprised first six Soviet cruisers powered by gas turbines. In Feb 1983 the cruiser was commissioned into Red Banner's Black Sea Fleet.