Large ASW ship Severomorsk started anti-piracy patrolling in the Gulf of Aden

05.02.2013 Large ASW ship Severomorsk of the Northern Fleet has started civil maritime traffic securing in the Gulf of Aden and near Horn of Africa as reported on February, 4 by the General Staff official.

Currently the crew of Severomorsk conducts Russian multitask ice breaking Vitus Bering escort through the Bab el Mandeb Strait. Mission is planned to be completed on February, 8.

Then Russian sailors will start forming and escorting inversely its first international convoy of vessels.

Large ASW ship Severomorsk left Baltiysk, the main base of the Northern Fleet, on January 18. From that time the ship sailed more than 6500 marine miles. The crew called on Ceuta, Spain, and Souda, Greece.

In the end of January Severomorsk participated in the large inter-fleet training exercises of Russian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea.

Conducted exercises started on January, 19 in the Black and the Mediterranean Seas water areas and lasted till January 29. The inter-fleet group comprises the warships from the North, Baltic, Black Sea and Pacific Fleets: a guided missile cruiser Moskva, a large ASW ship Severomorsk, guard ships Smetlivy and Yaroslav Mudry, large landing ships Saratov, Azov, Kaliningrad, Alexandr Shabalin and service ships, long-range aviation and the fourth Air Force/Air Defense command. 

The main goal of the exercises is to practice the formation of a combined group of forces outside of the Russian Federation, plan its use and perform joint operations within a Navy group under the common plan.