Russian Navy Command explained warships sending to the Mediterranean Sea

12.07.2012 The warships group from Russia's Northern, Baltic and Black Sea Fleets, sending to the Mediterranean Sea, will hold an exercise there, Interfax reports referring to the Russian Naval General Staff.

In particular, the warships group will drill company sailing under the sole command, antiaircraft and anti-submarine defence, anti-piracy protection of civil and commercial vessels. As part of manoeuvres every warship will carry Marine Corps personnel, the General Staff spokesman said.

According to him, the main goal of the campaign is not a call in the Syrian port Tartus. As expected, only support and auxiliary ships will visit Tartus for replenishment. As to warships, they will be sent there if the technological necessity appears.

The flagman of the group is Admiral Chabanenko, a Project 11551 large antisubmarine warfare ship of the Northern Fleet. All the warships will join forces a week later in the the Mediterranean Sea.

Recall, reportedly by Central Navy Portal, Admiral Chabanenko and three Russian amphibious assault ships left NF Main Base Severomorsk on July 10. Three amphibious assault ships transport Marine Corps submits on-board. Baltic Fleet guard frigat Yaroslav Mudry and auxiliary ships, based in Baltiysk, will join Admiral Chabanenko later. 

Later the unnamed source from the Russian Ministry of Defense told that "the program of the voyage includes a call in the Syrian port of Tartus". According to Interfax, the source insisted that the deployment was not linked to the escalation of the situation in Syria. "In Tartus the ships are going to top up on supplies of fuel, water and foodstuffs," the source said, adding that their deployment in the Mediterranean would last until the end of September.

Also the Russian Navy representative informed RIA Novosti that the warships group from Russia's Northern, Baltic and Black Sea Fleets was preparing for drilling in the Atlantic ocean as well as in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea

As reported, the group will include:

- Admiral Chabanenko, a Project 11551 large antisubmarine warfare ship; Alexander Otrakovsky, Georgy Pobedonosets and Kondopoga, Project 775 large landing ships; support ships - Nikolay Chiker, a Project ?-5757 rescue tug, and Sergey Osipov, a Project 1559 petrol carrier, from the Northern Fleet;

- Yaroslav Mudry, a Project 11540 guardian frigate and Lene, a Project 577 petrol carrier from the Baltic Fleet;

- Smetlivy, a Project 01090 destroyer; Caesar Kunikov, a Project 775 large landing ship and Nikolai Filchenkov, a Project 1171 large landing ship, from the Black Sea Fleet.

In 2012 Russian warships called at Tartus port many times. To replenish supplies, destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, Ladny, a Project 1135 frigate and tanker Lena, being deployed with the Russian Navy's carrier group in the Mediterranean, visited the port in Jan 2012. Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, a Project 1143.5 heavy aircraft carrying cruiser, the only Russian aircraft carrier, and rescue tug Nikolai Chiker were anchored off the Tartus port then.

Tartus hosts a Soviet-era naval supply and maintenance base, under a 1971 agreement with Syria, which is still staffed by Russian naval personnel. Tartus is the last Russian military base outside the former Soviet Union, and its only Mediterranean fueling spot, sparing Russia’s warships the trip back to their Black Sea bases through straits in Turkey, a NATO member.