Watching Russian Air & Sea Activity

[AdamG]

Ivan Gren [large amphibious assault ship] has had a long and troubled history. The vessel was first laid down in December 2004 and launched in May 2012. Its sea trials began in June 2016 and the ship will not be ready for delivery until at least late February.
“Gren is a typical example of a badly managed naval project which exist in many navies,” Vasily Kashin, a senior fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at Moscow's Higher School of Economics told The National Interest. “The design started 1998, almost 20 years ago. The problem was that the Navy changed the requirements so many times that the project ran into huge delays and the result was disliked by everyone. So as a result the Navy decided to build just two such ships (Ivan Gren and Pyotr Morgunov to be launched this year).”

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the...-baltics-24357

[AdamG]

Video of what the Russian government claims is merely an “exercise” appears to show a submarine on fire.
The video, shot in the Russian fear eastern city of Vladivostok, shows a large fire and thick, black smoke close to several moored Russian Navy submarines. The Russian government says the fire was part of a planned exercise, but the fire and smoke look way too close to the submarines for comfort.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/mil...ubmarine-fire/

[davidbfpo]

Well, well that is really scary:

The frequency of Russian probes towards British airspace is further cited by Britain's defence lobby as an even scarier indication of that threat. Regular reports of near incursions by those Tu-95 bombers, complete with accompanying videos, were offered as additional proof of Russia’s steady rise to global power (see "Russia and the west: risks of hype", 6 October 2016).Russia may present many dangers, it may have plenty of nuclear weapons, and may have a leader determined to take risks to make Russia great again – but such reports of its frequent air incursions are anything but true. A recent freedom-of-information request to the UK defence ministry, reported by Jane’s Defence Weekly, shows a rather different state of affairs. In each of the years 2013, 2014 and 2015, the RAF scrambled fighters on seventeen, twenty, and twelve days respectively: but many were not in response to Russian sorties, which stood at just eight for each of the years.
Moreover, in 2016 only five of the twelve days of "QRA" launches involved Russian aircraft, and in 2018 the incidence was only three out of six days (see Gareth Jennings, “UK notes marked decrease in number of days QRA intercepts flown against Russian aircraft", Jane's Defence Weekly, 12 February 2018).

Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-r...at-never-were?

[AdamG]

From January 2018

Russia’s Defense Ministry and the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) have come to an agreement that the Northern Shipyard in St. Petersburg in northwest Russia will start the construction of landing helicopter docks in 2020, a source in Russia’s defense industry told TASS.

https://www.navyrecognition.com/inde...d-in-2020.html

See also

On June 4, 2017, Russia’s state-owned news outlet Sputnik reported that the Ministry of Defense had included the proposed Lavina-class amphibious assault ship in its up-coming modernization plan, which will run through 2025. In 2015, the Krylov State Research Center in St. Petersburg unveiled the design along with that of the highly ambitious Project 23000E Shtorm aircraft carrier.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...s-assault-ship

Of parallel interest http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...601#post210601

[AdamG]

Is this the scene in the movie where all the alarm klaxons are going off, ships' crews are scrambling around and they're all slipping their anchor chains? opcorn:

Russia's Defense Ministry has not yet commented on the recently-released satellite imagery of what appears to be Russian warships being deployed to the Mediterranean from the naval facility at Tartus, Syria, with US vessels en route there, too.

The Israeli-based satellite operator iSi, which had previously released photos of Russia's latest fifth-generation Su-57 jets, stationed at Hmeymim airbase in Syria, has now published two pictures of what the company says to be Russian warships deploying from the Port of Tartus in Syria.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/2...ove-out-syria/

[AdamG]

Nifty writeup on Russia's POSEIDON Torpedo

The Poseidon is the largest torpedo ever developed in any country. At around 2 meters (6.5 ft) in diameter and over 20 meters (65 ft) long, it is approximately twice the size of submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and thirty times the size of a regular ‘heavyweight’ torpedo.

As well as submarine launch, there are reports and rumors that Poseidon has a seabed launch option, waiting on the sea floor for as long as necessary. In this mode the system may be known as Skif (Скиф – possibly named after the Scythian nomads who once Eurasian steppes 1500 years ago).

http://www.hisutton.com/Poseidon_Torpedo.html

[AdamG]

While I'm down here,

The Russian Navy has commissioned the long-delayed Admiral Gorshkov, lead ship of the Admiral Gorshkov-class (Project 22350) of guided missile frigates, on July 28 during a ceremony at the Severnaya Verf shipyards in St. Petersburg, a day before the service’s traditional grand naval parade.

The new warship is expected to be deployed with the Russian Navy Northern Fleet’s 43rd Missile Ship Division. The 5,400-ton Admiral Gorshkov is the largest surface combatant to be built by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to Russian Vice Admiral Viktor Bursuk, the Russian Navy will operate four Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates.

https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/russ...alth-frigates/