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The Russian Military Merged Thread- Navy

Maybe the RCN hasn't said anything because they haven't been all that involved in tracking sub-surface contacts "up there" in recent years... :whistle:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11283926/Britain-forced-to-ask-Nato-to-track-Russian-submarine-in-Scottish-waters.html

Maritime patrol aircraft from France, America and Canada flew to Scotland to join Royal Navy warships hunting for the suspected submarine after it was spotted at sea, west of Scotland

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/royal-navy-relied-on-nato-to-protect-british-waters-20-times-in-2015-a6870686.html

The US deployed 11 maritime patrol aircraft in 2015, while other NATO allies, including Canada, France and Germany, had deployed 10 aircraft between them.

I'm grateful the RAF was MPA-less, personally.  I love Scotland...and Norway and Iceland! 

Another asset to be added to the hunts:  https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-50233941?fbclid=IwAR2vQTIPOojIsbQOHGeSUEJQSat8O0g0Xd0zT5Hm2OSTcwsXSKgojZGXsto

* the RFN SSN in the pic above is looking in rough shape...that's good for NATO.
 
yea, just a few tiles missing. I bet they don't go as deep as they could back in the day.

You might want to check out these photo's as well https://www.facebook.com/Military9Army/photos/a.758412211030148/758412987696737/?type=3&theater
 
With a hull looking that jagged & uneven, must not be the quietest thing in the water by a long shot...?


Might still be tricky to find if it's "somewhere" in the Atlantic.  But with a reasonable idea of where it could be, can't imagine it would be all that stealthy looking like that
 
Missing tiles could result in more flow noise, and tiles can be used to keep noise from leaving the hull into the water mass as well so...could increase prob of detection.  Acoustics isn't my SME area, I am more of an...apprentice.

 
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/31040/russia-is-eying-more-armed-icebreakers-after-launching-missile-toting-arctic-patrol-ship

Look very much like the AOPS.  But with bigger guns :)
 
The USCG is warning about a Russian spy ship operating in an unsafe manner opposite A USN sub base.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/russia-spy-ship-east-coast-guard
 
tomahawk6 said:
The USCG is warning about a Russian spy ship operating in an unsafe manner opposite A USN sub base.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/russia-spy-ship-east-coast-guard
What's Russian for "don't drink & spy"?  ;D
 
AGIs tend to make a PITA of themselves.  ;D

Remember one ex, transitting out to our box...on the climb to transit altitude, looking around with EO and voila! there's a Moma steaming along about 8kts among some fishers.  :Tin-Foil-Hat:
 
More on revived US Second Fleet and threat from Russkie subs (note cruise missiles)--about which RCN seems strangely silent to me, especially as Brits and Norwegians are also talking about it a lot:

U.S. Fleet Created to Counter Russian Subs Now Fully Operational

The Navy’s fleet created to beef up its Atlantic presence against Russia is now fully operational, according to a Tuesday statement from the service.

Announced in May 2018, Norfolk, Va.-based U.S. 2nd Fleet was stood up after the release of the latest National Security Strategy that named Russia and China as the primary focus of American military concern and as the Russian submarine force has grown more sophisticated and capable.

“Within an increasingly complex global security environment, our allies and competitors alike are well aware that many of the world’s most active shipping lanes lie within the North Atlantic,” Commander Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis said in the statement. “Combined with the opening of waterways in the Arctic, this competitive space will only grow, and 2nd Fleet’s devotion to the development and employment of capable forces will ensure that our nation is both present and ready to fight in the region if and when called upon.”

Unlike the other numbered fleets in the U.S. Navy, 2nd Fleet does not have fixed geographic boundaries. It is designed to provide an unbroken oversight for high-end units operating throughout the Atlantic and a limited role in training. The Navy hasn’t confirmed the size of the command, but the initial order signed by then-Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer called for a command of about 250 people – significantly smaller than the other numbered fleets.

“[Second Fleet] will primarily focus on forward operations and the employment of combat-ready naval forces in the Atlantic and Arctic [emphasis added], and to a smaller extent, on force generation and the final training and certification of forces preparing for operations around the globe,” reads the statement.

The new, unbounded arrangement allows the Navy to provide continuous command and control from the East Coast through the Greenland, Iceland, U.K. (GIUK) gap and into the Arctic and Barents seas [emphasis added]. Second Fleet has highlighted its ability to deploy expeditionary command and control teams forward to keep ties back to Norfolk.

“Building its expeditionary capability, C2F established a Maritime Operations Center (MOC) this past September in Keflavik, Iceland. This forward operating MOC, made up of approximately 30 members of C2F staff, possessed the ability to command and control forces, provide basic indicators and warnings for situational awareness, and issue orders while maintaining reach-back capability to C2F headquarters,” reads a statement.

In addition to leading 2nd Fleet, Lewis also commands Joint Force Command Norfolk as part of the overall NATO military command structure [emphasis added].

The Navy has been coy about the thrust of the 2nd Fleet missions, but several sources have confirmed to USNI News the focus of the fleet is to provide a theater-wide command control for anti-submarine warfare targeting the Russians.

New Russian attack submarines are equipped with a new generation of land-attack missiles with ranges that put the majority of European capitals at risk
[emphasis added--and eastern North America]. The Kremlin is also developing a new breed of high-speed, nuclear-tipped torpedo.

Navy leaders have recently highlighted the increase in Russian submarine activity.

“We’re seeing a surge in undersea activity from the Russian Federation navy that we haven’t seen in a long time. Russia has continued to put resources into their undersea domain; it’s an asymmetric way of challenging the West and the NATO alliance, and actually they’ve done quite well,” Adm. James Foggo, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa and NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Naples, said earlier this month. “We in the United States submarine force still enjoy the competitive edge, I think we’re the best in the world and we need to stay that way.”

The announcement follows the May declaration of initial operational capability, just ahead of the 2nd Fleet-led Baltic Operations 2019 (BALTOPS) exercise in the Baltic Sea.

Security concerns have ratcheted up in the Atlantic theater since the initial stand-up of 2nd Fleet in May to the point where the Navy has declined to publicly announce the recent deployments of the Truman Carrier Strike Group and the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group.
https://news.usni.org/2019/12/31/u-s-fleet-created-to-counter-russian-subs-now-fully-operational

Mark
Ottawa
 
This article concerns a special Russian submarine that caught fire in Norwegian waters with the loss of most of its small crew. What interested me was the subs construcrion of titanium speheres allowing for deep operating depths which would see the USN using deep diving unmanned vehicles.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-deadly-losharik-submarine-fire-and-russias-secret-undersea-agenda/ar-BB12VBAD?ocid=spartanntp
 
Interesting that there is no mention of RCN and North Atlantic ASW in this article:

With challenges aplenty, Europe’s navies are coming to grips with high-end warfare

The former head of the U.S. Navy said in June testimony that as the service grapples with establishing the right type of force, it must account for the degraded capabilities of its allies, hinting at the once substantial Cold War-era European navies.

“In my mind [there’s] been an over-fixation on the total number of ships as opposed to the nuance numbers of specific types of ships that support viable operational plans,” retired Adm. Gary Roughead, former chief of naval operations, said before the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. “There’s also the need to understand just how small our allied navies have become, and in the past we have always looked to our allies to support us, but those navies are extraordinarily small [emphasis added].”

NATO has for years counted on the U.S. Navy as the centerpiece of its maritime forces, with the individual European navies serving as augmenting and supporting forces. And in the post-Cold War era, Europe’s navies have focused on low-end missions like counterterrorism and counter-piracy [emphasis added].

And that has led to a precipitous decline in naval power available to surge in the event of a high-end conflict. In a 2017 study, the Center for a New American Security found that Europe’s combat power at sea was about half of what it was during the height of the Cold War.

“Atlantic-facing members of NATO now possess far fewer frigates — the premier class of surface vessels designated to conduct [anti-submarine warfare] ASW operations — than they did 20 years ago,” the study found.

Where they collectively had about 100 frigates in 1995, that number hovers at 51 today.

“Similarly, these nations had, in 1995, 145 attack submarines — those dedicated to anti-shipping and anti-submarine warfare missions — but that number has plummeted to a present low of 84,” the study found.

But with the U.S. increasingly focused on Asia and amid tension within the alliance, Europe is coming to grips with the need to grow its forces and regain high-end capabilities it once had — a realization that also grew out of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine [emphasis added].

“Throughout the 1990s, the focus was low-end missions: counter-piracy, counterterrorism, migration, search and rescue,” said Sebastian Bruns, head of the Center for Maritime Strategy and Security in Kiel, Germany. “And they did so with the legacy platforms of the 1980s and 1990s. You know, sending an ASW frigate to fight piracy, well that’s not a lot of bang for your buck.

“But 2014, that’s really the turnaround. I can’t think of any European nation that’s not on board with modernizing and growing their navies. But the long-lead times and having to replace the legacy units, it just takes a damned long time to turn the ship around.”

But an unfortunate side effect of the long-lead times involved in force design — sometimes a decade or more — is that pre-2014 ship designs that are coming into service now are ill-suited for the high-end fight, Bruns said.

The prime example of this mission mismatch is Germany’s 7,200-ton Baden-Württemberg-class frigate. It began entering service in 2019, but is designed for low-end operations.

“They were designed in the 2000s — they even call it a ‘stabilization frigate’ — and they’re coming online at a time where the German Navy needs them for presence, but they don’t have the kind of teeth you’d expect for a 7,000-ton frigate,” Bruns said. “They’re really capable for presence and maritime security operations, but of course that’s not so much the world we live in anymore.”

But new, more advanced frigates are starting to filter into the market. For example, in 2017, France’s Naval Group launched a five-hull intermediate air defense frigate program designed to intercept air threats with the Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles.

And in January, the German Navy announced it had hired Dutch shipbuilder Damen to build at least four new MKS 180 frigates — a 9,000-ton ship designed to operate in waters with ice formations in a nod to the renewed competition in the Arctic [emphasis added].

Payloads over platforms

It’s not just new frigate designs that show Europe gradually upping its game.

Similar to the track the U.S. Navy has taken in fielding the Naval Strike Missile on its littoral combat ships and the Marine Corps’ approach to fielding it as a shore battery, European navies have begun to upgrade their ships’ systems in preparation for a high-end fight, said Jeremy Stöhs, a naval analyst who authored the book “Decline of European Naval Forces.”

“What we see now is since 2014 the focus is much more on sea control, lines of communication, territorial defense,” Stöhs said. “But because of the long-lead times, it is not just the ships they’re building; it’s the sensor suites, midlife upgrades, focusing again on sea-denial capabilities.”

Countries like the Black Sea and Scandinavian states are investing in anti-ship missiles and shore-based missile systems, he added, whereas a lot of those weapons were disbanded in the 1990s.

In 2016, for example, Sweden announced it was fielding coastal batteries with Saab’s RBS-15 anti-ship missile to defend its Baltic coast for the first time since 2000.

The Franco-British Sea Venom anti-ship missile is being designed to launch from a helicopter such as the U.K.’s Wildcat. It recently passed its first firing trial. The missile is currently designed for small, fast-moving vessels up to Corvette-sized warships.

In the Netherlands, the government announced in 2018 that their De Zeven Provinciën-class frigates would be ditching the venerable Harpoon missile for a new, more advanced surface-to-surface missile by 2024.

Evolving threat, evolving politics

Europe’s evolution toward more high-end naval battles in many ways mirrors the United States’ own pivot away from wars in the Middle East and Asia. But it’s also informed by changing politics.

“I’m seeing European navies pivot back to the basics: How do we handle the GIUK [Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom] gap? How do we patrol the North Atlantic? Anti-submarine warfare, convoy escort, anti-surface warfare: They are starting to come back to that,” said Jerry Hendrix, an analyst with Telemus Group and a retired Navy captain. “And as you are starting to see the new heavy German designs, they’re coming back to focusing on a maritime challenger [emphasis added].”

But with this evolution has come a realization of Europe’s shortcomings and just how dependent those navies have been on the U.S. for some core capabilities.

“They’re starting to think about a naval force without the US present,” Hendrix said. “[German Chancellor] Angela Merkel has talked about the need for Europe to start thinking about going its own way. And by the way, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I do see the interests on the continent and the U.S. going in different directions.”

But a European naval construct without the U.S. would prove challenging, as many countries based their investments on the idea of a shared responsibility, with the U.S. as the main high-end capability provider, said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at The Hudson Institute.

“NATO, in theory, still has the NATO strategic concept where different countries were going to specialize in different capabilities, which led to the Finns and Swedes really embracing amphibious capabilities for small-scale, special operations forces insertion. The Brits and Italians focused on ASW. But without the U.S. acting as the strategic centerpiece, the strategic concept starts to fall apart.

“The concept assumes you have someone that has a multimission capability that you can augment, as opposed to: ‘We’re going to pull all this together without the U.S. from a bunch of disparate countries with disparate capabilities.' ”

That situation means any NATO action with just European nations would need a lot of participation, he said.

“Before, if you had just the U.S. and three or four nations participating, you’d have a pretty robust, multimission capability” Clark said. “But without the U.S., you’d need half the alliance to contribute so as to not miss out on key mission areas.”

And without the robust U.S. logistics system, countries would have to replace not just the high-end weapons and sensors, but much of the support infrastructure as well. That could mean even more downward pressure on how much capability Europe can bring to bear.

“If you have to expend weapons or do extensive resupply or refueling, the whole model starts to break down,” Clark added. “The way the European navies are structured, they don’t have this end-to-end capability to deliver on all the support missions as well.

“So if they have to invest in a significant combat logistics force, with budgets for defense being limited, that’s going to mean their navies will potentially become even smaller.”
https://www.defensenews.com/smr/transatlantic-partnerships/2020/06/22/with-challenges-aplenty-europes-navies-are-coming-to-grips-with-high-end-warfare/

Mark
Ottawa
 
Article Link

Russian submarine surfaces near Alaska during war exercise

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Russian submarine surfaced near Alaska on Thursday during a Russian war game exercise, U.S. military officials said.

It was unclear why it surfaced.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command are closely monitoring the submarine, Northern Command spokesman Bill Lewis said.

“We have not received any requests for assistance from the Russian Navy or other mariners in the area,” Lewis said from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. “We always stand ready to assist those in distress.”

Lewis declined to provide further details about the submarine, including its proximity to Alaska. He only said it was operating in international waters near Alaska.

“We closely track vessels of interest, including foreign military naval vessels, in our area of responsibility,” Lewis said.

The Russian military exercise is taking place in international waters, well outside the U.S. territorial sea, he said.

The presence of Russian military assets in the war games caused a stir for U.S. commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea on Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

“We were notified by multiple fishing vessels that were operating out the Bering Sea that they had come across these vessels and were concerned. So they contacted us,” Coast Guard spokesman Kip Wadlow said earlier Thursday.

The Coast Guard contacted the Alaskan Command at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which confirmed the ships were there as part of a pre-planned Russian military exercise that was known to some U.S. military officials, Wadlow said.

Wadlow did not have information about the scope of the exercise or how many Russian vessels were involved, referring those questions to the Alaskan Command.

Officials at the Anchorage base referred questions to Air Force officials at the U.S. Northern Command.

 
As for the Russian Navy exercise itself in Bering Sea:

Russian navy conducts major maneuvers near Alaska

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian navy conducted major war games near Alaska involving dozens of ships and aircraft, the military said Friday, the biggest such drills in the area since Soviet times.

Russia’s navy chief, Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, said that more than 50 warships and about 40 aircraft were taking part in the exercise in the Bering Sea, which involved multiple practice missile launches.

“We are holding such massive drills there for the first time ever,” Yevmenov said in a statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the exercises began or if they had finished.

Yevmenov emphasized that the war games are part of Russia’s efforts to boost its presence in the Arctic region and protect its resources [emphasis added].

“We are building up our forces to ensure the economic development of the region,” he said. “We are getting used to the Arctic spaces.”

The Russian military has rebuilt and expanded numerous facilities across the polar region in recent years, revamping runways and deploying additional air defense assets.

Russia has prioritized boosting its military presence in the Arctic region, which is believed to hold up to one-quarter of the Earth’s undiscovered oil and gas. Russian President Vladimir Putin has cited estimates that put the value of Arctic mineral riches at $30 trillion.

Russia’s Pacific Fleet, whose assets were taking part in the maneuvers, said the Omsk nuclear submarine and the Varyag missile cruiser launched cruise missiles at a practice target in the Bering Sea as part of the exercise [emphasis added].

The maneuvers also saw Onyx cruise missiles being fired at a practice target in the Gulf of Anadyr from the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula, it added.

As the exercise was ongoing, U.S. military spotted a Russian submarine surfacing near Alaska on Thursday. U.S. Northern Command spokesman Bill Lewis noted that the Russian military exercise is taking place in international waters, well outside U.S. territory.

Lewis said the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command were closely monitoring the submarine. He added that they haven’t received any requests for assistance from the Russian navy but stand ready to assist those in distress.

Russian state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Russia’s Pacific Fleet sources as saying that the surfacing of the Omsk nuclear submarine was routine [emphasis added].

It cited former Russian navy’s chief of staff, retired Adm. Viktor Kravchenko, as saying that by having the submarine surface in the area the navy may have wanted to send a deliberate signal.

“It’s a signal that we aren’t asleep and we are wherever we want,” RIA Novosti quoted Kravchenko as saying.

The presence of Russian military assets in the area caused a stir for U.S. commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea on Wednesday.

“We were notified by multiple fishing vessels that were operating out the Bering Sea that they had come across these vessels and were concerned,” U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Kip Wadlow said Thursday.

The Coast Guard contacted the Alaskan Command at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which confirmed the ships were there as part of a pre-planned Russian military exercise that was known to some U.S. military officials, he said.

The Russian military has expanded the number and the scope of its war games in recent years as Russia-West relations have sunk to their lowest level since the Cold War after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, and other crises.
https://apnews.com/1f6c6dceba65e893aeeee9dfa814ef8f

Mark
Ottawa
 
Have a look at what these guys are discussing at a Russian navy fan site. Interesting concept for ICBM, no? SLBM with a different meaning.  What about a container ship passing through waters in peacetime placing pressurized container can versions of pre-positioned VLS anti ship missiles within range of harbours and known transit points. Something China might do. Something perhaps already in place....
 

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Note this is mostly about the Russkies’ own side of the Arctic:


Russia Elevates Importance of Northern Fleet Upgrading it to Military District Status

Russia has upgraded the administrative status of its Northern Fleet for a second time in less than a decade. As of 1 January 2021 the Northern Fleet, whose area of operation includes the Arctic, has become its own military district.

In a further sign of the strategic importance of Russia’s Arctic military assets President Putin has upgraded the status of the Northern Fleet. The fleet, primarily based near Murmansk, which was previously upgraded and designated a Joined Strategic Command in 2014, now joins four other military districts in Russia. It consolidates a large part of Russia’s Arctic capabilities under one roof and contains territory of the Republic of Komi, the regions of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk and the Nenets Autonomous Region.

Per a presidential decree signed by President Putin on 21 December 2020 Russia’s Northern Fleet became its own military district on 1 January 2021. It represents the first time that a fleet’s standing is elevated to equal to that of the existing four military districts – West, South, East and Central.

The Northern Fleet military district will be responsible for the Arctic, the Russia Arctic coastline, and the Northern Sea Route. The fleet’s main naval base Severomorsk is located near Murmansk and it maintains at least six additional bases across the district [emphasis added].

A decade of revitalizing Northern Fleet

According to security experts it represents a logical step which comes after more than a decade of investments in the fleet’s assets: revitalizing existing Arctic military bases and constructing new ones, constructing capable radar installations and stationing modern weaponry in the region.

“To a certain degree it’s an artificial act, it’s a recognition that offensive and defensive capabilities of the Northern Fleet represent one of the most important elements of the Russian military,” explains Rob Huebert, associate professor at the University of Calgary and a senior research fellow with the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies.

“The Northern fleet is the Russian nuclear deterrent. Nuclear deterrence has been the number one issue and Russia has always been able to maintain and protect that deterrence [emphasis added],” he continues.

The modernization of the Northern Fleet’s assets and Arctic military bases over the past decade or so has followed a predictable sequence aimed at protecting vital infrastructure and ports, building up defensive Russian air capabilities – including the stationing of the advanced S-400 missile system [emphasis added] in the Arctic – and now adding and extending the reach of offensive capabilities.

Adding offensive capabilities

To that end the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it will equip the Northern Fleet with the hypersonic missile Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, also called Dagger. The nuclear-capable Dagger, which first flew in 2018, can travel up to ten times the speed of sound and travel up to 2,000 kilometers [emphasis added]. At such high speeds it represents a challenge for western missile defense systems…

Training of personnel and construction of infrastructure to operate the missile will begin in 2021. Russia will use MiG-31 fighters to carry Dagger far into the Arctic projecting the country’s power in the Arctic region, according to the Ministry. The first squadron of Dagger-equipped MiGs will be stationed on the Kola Peninsula [emphasis added] and is part of the newly-created Northern Fleet military district…
https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/ru...n-fleet-upgrading-it-military-district-status

Mark
Ottawa
 
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