The Russian Military Merged Thread- Navy

[Shec]

There, fixed it for you.  Great movie, and a great book as well.

Thanks Bud 

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

If Russian subs are parked off the US Coast.....where are the US Subs?

Just a whacky thought.....

Undoubtably shadowing them like they are suppose to....

 

[FormerHorseGuard]

From the CTV News website
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090811/sub_coast_090811/20090811?hub=Canada

I see the skills of our airmen and older equipment is being tested even before the planned exercise in the North. I think it is time for Canada to start a major purchase plan for new sub chasers both ships and aircraft. The government should stop talking about it and planning for it in 20 years but do something now.  Letting any country  come that  close to our coast lines  and into our Northern  waters is going hurt our claims
Just my  thoughts

 

[CougarKing]

There is a related, similar topic thread already below, although that one focuses more on those off the US East Coast rather than Canada:

"Russian subs back on patrol off US East Coast" thread of army.ca

 

[Larkvall]

A Russia Today story on the Russian subs off Canadian waters. Apparently the Air Force is tracking them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OwMQDH_8X8

 

[BlueJingo]

For some strange reason i get a "Hunt for Red October" quote coming on...

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

For some strange reason i get a "Hunt for Red October" quote coming on...

Why? There were no quotes a few years ago when they were operating off our coasts then and that never made the news as it was the status quo.

 

[BlueJingo]

HFRO: Captain Ramius: We will pass through the American patrols, past their sonar nets, and lay off their largest city, and listen to their rock and roll... while we conduct missile drills. *I love that movie*

Why no quote a few years ago... hmm...Back then I was just getting the hang of this forum stuff... but I would of made light of the same thing then too! 

Sorry to say it but when I think of Russian Nuclear Subs off our East Coast I just think of that movie... I understand that in this case it's probably just a war game or drill or something...

Fm CBC: "Deputy chief of staff for the Russian armed forces, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovistsyn, said the unannounced sub movements are "part of a normal process" and are traveling within recognized international regulations. There is no need for "hysteria" about their presence..."

There is no hysteria here! 

 

[Greymatters]

Its hard for regular people to know whats true when the news clip gives both true and false information at the same time - Russian subs did not stop making visits to North America after 1992, and this activity has been reported in newspapers before... 

 

[aesop081]

Norway had 88 encounters with Russian submarines in 2007.

 

[blacktriangle]

The article called them "attack submarines" and showed a picture of an akula, so are most of the subs being encountered SSN's vice SSBNs?

 

[Greymatters]

The article called them "attack submarines" and showed a picture of an akula, so are most of the subs being encountered SSN's vice SSBNs?

Looking at the missile types carried, and their range, will give you an idea of why one type might be found close to North American shores while another type will not ...

 

[blacktriangle]

Ah, seen. Why risk coming closer with the boomers when they can operate from arctic waters closer to home...makes sense. Thanks for the head shake.

 

[Greymatters]

Once you point out what to look for, most people can figure out things like this for themselves...

 

[CougarKing]

I doubt this has been posted before:

Over the last two decades, the oceanic navy that Russia inherited from the Soviet Union has declined in size and quality. There were repeated calls from naval officers over the last decade for new construction and a revival of the navy. On Navy Day July 27, 2008 the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky spoke of a revival of Russian naval power over the next decade and declared that the navy would add six carrier battle groups to its complement of warships. Construction of these ships, he said, would begin in 2012 with three of the carriers assigned to the Northern Fleet and the other three to the Pacific Fleet. This month, after reviewing the naval activities of the Baltic, Northern and Black Sea Fleets during the exercise Zapad 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev repeated the call for a revival of Russian naval power and promised new acquisitions over the next decade. Medvedev noted that naval appropriations had not suffered major cuts during the current economic crisis. He stated: “I am convinced that over the next decade we can re-establish our navy at the level necessary to our state. . . . We need a powerful fleet” (Flag Rodiny, October 2).

Medvedev did not speak of six carrier task forces, and recent developments seem to indicate some reordering of naval priorities. These changes do not preclude the construction of carriers over the next decade, but suggest greater attention to naval balance. Yet, balance in the Russian case refers to the ability of each fleet to perform missions as the maritime flank of the Russian army in the absence of support from other naval forces, because of the ease of isolation of each naval theater in time of war.Since the Russian navy played an active supporting role in the Russia-Georgia War in August 2008, greater attention has been devoted to the Black Sea Fleet and its future. During that conflict the Black Sea Fleet landed troops in Abkhazia and blockaded the Georgian ports of Poti and Batumi. On August 10, while approaching the Russian amphibious convoy off the Abkhazian port of Ochamchira, a Georgian flotilla of small craft were attacked by the missile corvette Mirazh and one of the craft was sunk. Thereupon, the Georgian vessels sailed back to Poti where two were sunk in their docks, and one towed to sea and sunk without resistance by their crews. The Black Sea Fleet, led by the cruiser Moskva, had sailed from Sevastopol, which led to increased tension between Russia and Ukraine, since the latter hosts the Russian fleet at Sevastopol under a lease agreement that extends to 2017. Recently, when Georgian warships intercepted commercial vessels sailing to Abkhazian ports, the Russian government announced that in the future the Black Sea Fleet and the Russian Coast Guard will protect such shipping from interference.

Much attention has been devoted to the fate of the Russian base at Sevastopol after 2017, since the loss of the base would erode Russia’s capacity to command the Black Sea. This view, however, does not take into account the fact that Sevastopol is an operating base and not a major ship building facility. Since the eighteenth century, the capital ships of the Black Sea Fleet have been built at Nikolaev (Mykolaiv in Ukrainian). However, neither Russia nor Ukraine have made use of the yards for new construction, and both fleets are aging and in need of refits for the vessels in service. Nikolaev does have some modest commercial construction, but it has lost its place as the home of major naval shipyards. For Russia, this fact has meant the prospect of a steady decline of Russian naval power in a theater of ongoing military operations. The decline in both the Ukrainian and Russian Black Sea Fleets has shifted the naval balance. Among the Black Sea littoral states, only Turkey has engaged in significant naval modernization over the last decade, and that seems to have been driven by naval competition with Greece.

Two recent developments suggest that the Russian government has begun to address this problem of decline in the wake of the Russia-Georgia War. First, on September 1 Medvedev issued a decree creating the post of Deputy Commander for Naval Affairs in the North Caucasus Military District and subordinating the operations of the Black Sea Fleet and the Caspian Flotilla to the military district commander (Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie, September 11-17). This will ensure the unity of command for army, air and naval forces in this theater of military operations and re-emphasize what was a traditional function of Russian naval forces in this theater as an instrument of presence and intervention on the maritime flanks of Russian armies in the Caucasus. This emerged in the long wars against the mountaineers in the nineteenth century. During World War I the Russian navy developed specialized shallow-draught landing craft to conduct amphibious operations against the eastern Black Sea coasts of Anatolia. The modern version of the frigate, gunboat, or shallow-draught landing craft for such power projection is the amphibious assault ship.

Another manifestation of strategic change with regard to the Black Sea Fleet is linked to Moscow’s plan to purchase from France one helicopter-amphibious assault ship of the Mistral class, with an option to build three under license in Russian shipyards. The procurement of the Mistral was discussed in the Russian press as an affront to its own shipyards. Army-General Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of the General Staff, justified the decision based on the advanced characteristics of the French ship, which can carry transport and attack helicopters, with space for 450 troops, capable of launching six landing craft (conventional and air-cushion), and in the absence of the capacity to build such ships in Russian shipyards. “No country in the world can do everything at a high qualitative level,” he noted (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, September 23).

Some critics have attacked the purchase as a commitment to future global power projection, but in this case, it would appear that Russia's Mistral will solve two immediate problems: procurement of a key class of ship for the Black Sea Fleet and enhanced power projection capabilities in the region.

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_...ash=6aa1ebf4b9

 

 

[CougarKing]

Wait a minute...so the ice is THAT thick that even a heavy icebreaker like this can't break free?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_bi_ge/aa_antarctic_cruise_ship

A Russian icebreaker carrying over 100 tourists, scientists and journalists on a cruise around Antarctica was struggling to free itself from sea ice but was not in any danger, a shipping company said Tuesday.

The Captain Khlebnikov icebreaker is about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from clear water near Snow Hill Island in the Weddell Sea, German Kuzin of the Fareastern Shipping Company told Russia's Vesti 24 television. He said neither the ship nor the passengers faced any risks.

The ship was trying to move slowly through the ice but the winds were too light to break up the ice pack, he said. An Argentine official said the ice would delay the ship's return by three to six days.

(...)

 

[CougarKing]

A related article:

Retired admiral says Russia losing its navy

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV (AP) – 2 days ago

MOSCOW — Russia's once-mighty navy faces further dramatic decline after 2015, when most Soviet-built ships will have to be mothballed, a retired admiral was quoted as saying Friday.

The warning follows comments by Russian officials they were planning to buy a French amphibious assault warship able to carry at least a dozen helicopters or to land forces.

Russia currently has no big ship with the power to anchor off coast and deploy troops onto land. With the likely decommissioning of other aging warships, distant deployments would be impossible, Retired Adm. Vyacheslav Popov said in remarks carried by RIA Novosti news agency.

"If things remain as they are, we will have to mothball most ocean warships by 2015," Popov was quoted as saying. "That will sharply reduce the navy's capability," which he said was now five to six times less than Britain's or France's, and 20-30 times smaller than the U.S. Navy's.
Popov and other retired military officers have described the Russian navy as being in a pitiful state — a sharp contrast to the Kremlin's attempts to flex military muscle abroad.

Russia has sent warships to patrol pirate-infested waters off Somalia, and in 2008 dispatched a navy squadron to the Caribbean for joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy and for several port calls.

But Popov, a former Northern Fleet chief who is now a member of parliament's upper house, warned that the navy would only be capable of acting near Russian shores after 2015.

Only a handful of big surface ships, such as missile cruisers and destroyers, remain seaworthy, after Russia failed to commission new ships and properly maintain Soviet-built ones amid the post-Soviet economic meltdown in the 1990s. The flow of petrodollars in the 2000s failed to reverse the navy's fortunes.

Popov said that, despite increased military budgets, the government has failed to allocate money for building new warships or even maintaining the old ones.

In the last decade, the navy had commissioned only one relatively small surface warship, he said. Its single Soviet-built aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, is much smaller than U.S. aircraft carriers and has been plagued by mechanical problems and accidents.

Russia has been in talks with France about a possible purchase of a Mistral-class assault ship and building several others under license — a deal military leaders say will allow Russia to import new Western technologies and modernize its industries.

Russia's struggling shipbuilders oppose the purchase, arguing that instead of buying a French warship the government should invest in domestic production. A shipyard in Severodvinsk has tried for years to fulfill an order to modernize a Soviet-built aircraft carrier for India and sought to swell a contract price.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

[CougarKing]

Telegraph link

Russian Subs Stalk Trident In Echo Of Cold War
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Published: 10:37PM BST 27 Aug 2010

Russian submarines are hunting down British Vanguard boats in a return to Cold War tactics not seen for 25 years, Navy chiefs have warned.

A specially upgraded Russian Akula class submarine has been caught trying to record the acoustic signature made by the Vanguard submarines that carry Trident nuclear missiles, according to senior Navy officers.

British submariners have also reported that they are experiencing the highest number of "contacts" with Russian submarines since 1987.

If the Russians are able to obtain a recording of the unique noise of the boat's propellers it would have serious implications for Britain's nuclear deterrent. Using its sophisticated sonar, the Akula would be able to track Vanguards and potentially sink them before they could launch their Trident D4 missiles.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that, within the past six months, a Russian Akula entered the North Atlantic and attempted to track a Vanguard. The incident has remained secret until now.

It is understood that the Russians stood off Faslane, where the British nuclear force is based, and waited for a Trident-carrying boat to come out for its three-month patrol to provide the Continuous At Sea Deterrent.

While patrolling in the North Atlantic, there are a limited number of places the Vanguard is permitted to go and it is thought that the Akula attempted to track it on several occasions.

Navy commanders are understood to have ordered a Trafalgar-class hunter-killer submarine to protect the Vanguard. A recording of the Akula was made by the Trafalgar submarine's sonar operators and has been played to The Daily Telegraph.

"The Russians have been playing games with us, the Americans and French in the North Atlantic," a senior Navy commander said.

"We have put a lot of resources into protecting Trident because we cannot afford by any stretch to let the Russians learn the acoustic profile of one of our bombers as that would compromise the deterrent."

 

[xena]

I always get confused by this.  Are they talking about the subs NATO calls "Akula", or the subs the Russians call "Akula"?

Schuchka (or "Pike" in English) class submarine - NATO Reporting Name "Akula" (which is Russian for 'shark').

Akula class submarine - NATO Reporting Name "Typhoon".

 

[xena]

I was with 407 (MP) Sqn in the early 90's.  We often quipped that it was great that the Russians are now our allies, but we wished someone would tell their submarine captains that!