Watching Russian Air & Sea Activity

[AdamG]

This sounds like something off the Sy-Fy channel - Russians sending an ancient destroyer to the Med...

http://navalmatters.wordpress.com/20...syrian-waters/

More than ten ships and an unknown number of Russian submarines are now in Mediterranean waters, amassing a presence for first time since the dissolution of the fifth military fleet of the Soviet Union in 1992.

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See more at: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/new....53sdanq7.dpuf

[wm]

This sounds like something off the Sy-Fy channel - Russians sending an ancient destroyer to the Med...

Sounds like a good depository for a Chem weapons stockpile moved out of Syria in response to the Russian suggestion (BBC reported) to Syria that it put its chem stockpile under international control followed by destruction of said stockpile. What would be easier than to scuttle that destroyer someplace over the Mariannas Trench after filling it up with Syrian VX, Sarin, and Mustard shells and the precursor chemicals on hand? One wonders whether the ship is big enough though.

[AdamG]

Russia’s Moskva missile cruiser, dubbed a “carrier-killer” by NATO, has passed through the Straits of Gibraltar and is now heading toward the eastern Mediterranean to assume command of the Russian naval force there.

The Russian Navy said in a statement that the Moskva cruiser passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on September 10.

http://rt.com/news/russia-moskva-cru...terranean-720/

[Steve Blair]

Ah, the old Slava-class makes its appearance. Looks like an interesting mix of ships, although nothing really surprising yet. It makes sense that they'd need something larger than a Udaloy-class destroyer to serve as flag. But with as many amphibious warfare ships as they're sending, this looks more like a task force geared toward evacuating personnel and assets as opposed to anything with a major offensive intent.

[Tukhachevskii]

Is it just me or does anyone else think SWC has real potential as an OSINT site?

[AdamG]

Is it just me or does anyone else think SWC has real potential as an OSINT site?

Inconceivable!

Earlier in October, Putin stated strongly that Russia would never “surrender” its Arctic area. Indeed, Temp airfield located on Kotelny Island, the largest of Russian islands in Novosiberian region, is being reactivated.

The airfield has been operational beginning in 1949 then, 20 years ago, its activity was suspended, and the infrastructures preserved for future use. Since then, Russian policy towards Arctic has become more aggressive and one of the elements of that policy is to reinstate the aforementioned airfield for Russian Air Force planes.

In 2012, a helicopter crash occured during a Russian specialists’ visit to the island. Nobody died, but the mishap halted the reactivation activities. This year people and equipment were delivered by sea. Back in September an expedition included 150 people, 40 machines and vehicles.

http://theaviationist.com/2013/12/08...a-arctic-base/

So who plays Patrick MCGoohan's role?

MOSCOW, December 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russian naval forces are set to make the Arctic a priority region, boosting combat training and scouting lesser-known areas of the icy territory in 2014, a navy spokesman said Monday.

The Northern Fleet will conduct sailing and diving expeditions in the Arctic and develop a series of ice-class patrol ships to protect the country’s interest in the region, said Vadim Serga, a captain First Class and spokesman for the fleet’s Western Military District.

Russia has already begun deploying aerospace defense units and constructing an early missile warning radar system near the far northern town of Vorkuta. Completion of that system is planned for 2018.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131202/185...y-in-2014.html


...and from five hours ago, usual provocative Squadron operations are provocative.

Japan on Friday ordered its air force to track the movement of two Russian nuclear-capable planes that were flying close to Japanese airspace, RIA Novosti reported.

The pair of long-range Tupolev Tu-160 bombers were said by the Japanese military to have flown close to Japan's Hokkaido island and past Honshu island.

Though the bombers did not trespass into Japanese airspace, the island nation's jets were scrambled as a preventative measure, according to the Japanese military.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/globa...mbers-20131209

[AdamG]

Naval analysts for some time have derided the status of the Russian Federation Navy (RFN), falling from its elevated Cold War status as an American near-equal, to an obsolescent non-operational force through the first decade of the 21st century. This less-than-graceful degradation has effectively ceased with a newly invigorated shipbuilding budget, the delivery of a number of warships and, most importantly, the redeployment of this once proud navy into the world’s oceans.

http://nationalinterest.org/commenta...rm-rising-9616