Watching Russian Air & Sea Activity

[AdamG]

The US Navy could have wanted to send Moscow a signal when USS Gravely, a guided missile destroyer, performed a dangerous maneuver in the Mediterranean, but the Russian ships in the region hardly viewed the incident as a major threat because they are focused on their main mission, defense analyst Ilya Kramnik asserted.

The Russian Navy is primarily tasked with making sure that the so-called Syrian express, a supply line for Moscow's anti-Daesh campaign in the Arab country, is working, he explained. In other words, it is meant to protect Russian ships going in and out of Syria from a potential terrorist attack.

http://sputniknews.com/politics/2016...s-gravely.html

[AdamG]

On June 29, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it was purging the entire senior and mid-level command of the Baltic Fleet. It was a dramatic move that suggested deep structural problems within the fleet command. In total, 50 officers were dismissed from their post, including the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk, and his chief of staff, Vice Admiral Sergei Popov.

Not since Stalin's purges had so many officers been ousted at once.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/a...et/574408.html

[AdamG]

The United States on Wednesday accused Russia of deliberately displaying the wrong naval signals and interfering with a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea, in the latest salvo about a June incident that both countries blame on each other.

On Wednesday, Hernandez said the Russian ship raised the “ball-diamond-ball" signal on its mast when it was two nautical miles away from the USS Gravely, a U.S. destroyer operating in the Mediterranean with the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.

That combination of simple geometric shapes is used to indicate that a ship's ability to maneuver is restricted.

Russia identified its ship as the Russian Navy frigate Yaroslav Mudry.

Hernandez said the Russian ship maneuvered to get closer to the Gravely, changing course and speed as the U.S. ship did, which he said showed it was not in fact restricted in its ability to maneuver, and was thus intentionally displaying a false international signal.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKCN0ZG01L

[AdamG]

The Russian Navy is preparing a contract with the nation’s largest shipbuilder for eight new nuclear-powered missile cruisers.

According to local media, United Shipbuilding Corporation Deputy President Igor Ponomarev says the contract is currently under review. The construction of the first vessel is expected to commence in early 2018.

The new missile cruisers will be designed by the Severnoye Design Bureau in St. Petersburg and are expected to have a deadweight of 17,500 tons, a length of 200 meters (650 feet0 and to be equipped with more than 200 missiles including a version of the S-500, the newest and most lethal Russian missile system.

These weapons are expected to make the vessels comparable with U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyers

http://www.maritime-executive.com/ar...ssile-cruisers

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian Navy will receive the Admiral Gorshkov, the lead ship of its class and the first Project 22350 frigate, on November 22, the Russian Navy's former First Deputy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Igor Kasatonov said.

http://sputniknews.com/russia/201607...-gorshkov.html

Russia’s Severnoye Design Bureau has started working on the Project 23560 Leader-class destroyer that will combine the features of a destroyer, large antisubmarine warship and guided missile cruiser.

The Leader will be a universal ship, triple-hatted as a destroyer, large ASW ship and guided missile cruiser while being smaller than Project 1144 ships and carrying far more weaponry,” news publication The Defence Talk reported Valeriy Polovinki, advisor to the director general of the Krylov State Research Center that worked out the destroyer’s preliminary design military,

http://sputniknews.com/military/2016...attleship.html

[AdamG]

The Russian defense industry has constructed six Varshavyanka diesel-electric submarines from the 636.3 project for the Black Sea Fleet. These submarines are equipped with the new winged Caliber-PL missiles, which can strike targets up to 1,500 miles away.

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According to Kasatonov, defense industry enterprises will build six equivalent submarines for the Pacific Ocean Fleet. "The industry is also building a series of strategic missile submarine cruisers from the 955 Borei project," he said. The navy has received three of these submarines and will obtain another five by 2020.

The Russian Defense Ministry's main resources are now being invested in the modernization of submarine bases in the Far East, in the city of Vilyuchinsk in the Kamchatka Region (4,150 miles east of Moscow) and in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea coast (940 miles south of Moscow). Four subs from the 995 Borei project are destined for the Kamchatka base and four will be sent to the North Fleet docks.

Three Varshavyanka 636.6 diesel subs with the Caliber winged missiles are on alert in Novorossiysk and within three years, after the construction of all the navy infrastructure is complete, the base will receive the other three subs from the series.

Russian experts say that the new program has taken into account the mistakes that the USSR made in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when large Krechet aircraft carriers from the 1143 project were introduced to the navy. The fleet received the vessels but there was no infrastructure to service them and they were forced to remain in the docks on a permanent basis, producing electricity with their diesel engines and burning up their resources, something that resulted in them being written off prematurely. Now an entire series of coastal infrastructure is being created for each ship and submarine

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http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Sec...8551472060557/

[AdamG]

Caveat for all Russian / non-independently sourced information in this thread, read this http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...827#post192827

[AdamG]

The Pentagon says a Russian fighter plane flew within about 10ft (3m) of one of its reconnaissance aircraft operating over the Black Sea.

US officials described the intercept by the SU-27 jet on Wednesday as "dangerous and unprofessional".

Russia's defence ministry said the US plane had been approaching Russian territory and the SU-27 pilots had adhered to international rules.

Russia is currently carrying out military exercises in the Black Sea.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37303247