Peter the Great Update: It's About Time!

Gist: The deployed Northern Fleet battle group has met Venezuelan Armed Forces. Having just barely entered territorial waters, they picked up an honor guard of Venezuelan Su-30s, the very kind that Russia has sold to Latin America. The Peter the Great and other ships will rest at anchor at the port of La Guaira, 35km from Caracas, while ashore they prepare to welcome Russian sailors, who in turn will return the favor.

Venezuela welcomes us! The task force enters territorial waters in the Caribbean Sea. This very morning two Su-30s are in the sky, made in Russia, sold to Venezuela. They circle the task group one after the other. Our sailors render honors to a friendly country and this frigate will escort us to the port of La Guaira. The exercises between the countries will last until the first of December. These will be the first exercises in history involving the submarines, frigates, cruisers and helicopters of Russia and Venezuela.

Comrade officers, I will now brief you on the exercises between Russia and Venezuela, ((missed))-2008.

They discuss the plans that lay ahead in the Navigator's shack - joint patrolling, search for and destruction of submarines and ships belonging to the potential enemy, reconnaissance and anti-air warfare. The militaries of the two countries have been preparing for these large scale exercises for a couple of months. The official language of the exercises wont be English, Spanish or Russian but the language of symbols and signs.

We have created a table of conditional signals which have been translated into both languages and both countries have approved this table of signals. These signals will be used during the exercise....

There is activity above decks as well. Two presidents will visit Peter the Great: Hugo Chavez and Dmitriy Medvedev.

This is the first time Peter the Great has visited South America. The cruiser was built for northern waters and not for the Caribbean. The air temperature is 34 degrees and the water temperature is 30.

Captain, Peter the Great, Feliks Min'kov: The ship has been at sea in the open ocean. Whether we want it or not, we have to battle against the effects of salt water, or just plain water. So we have to clean up everywhere.

The flag of Venezuela already flies on the mast. It is naval tradition to fly the flag of the countries in whose port you are conducting a friendly visit. Today the sailors checked out the missile tubes. The Peter the Great's armament will be shown to the presidents of both countries.

What is there to show? The Peter the Great is the largest non-aircraft carrier warship in the world. Two hundred and fifty meters of steel with dozens of missile tubes. And beneath each of these three ton hatches lays the main battery - the Granit nuclear anti-ship cruise missile (RNB comment - Huh! Well how about that!). As opposed to American cruise missiles, the Granit flies to its target at supersonic speed like a fighter jet. There is no ship as powerful as the Peter the Great in the world.

Peter the Great Update: Pirates of the .... Horn of Africa?

Via Murmansk TV-21:

The TRKR Peter the Great may join the fight against pirates around the Horn of Africa soon, according to K1R Igor' Dygalo.

In an interview with Zvezda TV, Dygalo said, "It isn't ruled out that the TRKR Peter Veliki would go to the Horn of Africa after the completion of her mission off the coast of Venezuela and the joint exercises there".

The Pacific Fleet would also take on that mission and send there ships from that fleet. According to the Commander in Chief, the time frames of the temporary deployments have to be worked out, but it would either be one ship or a task group.

(...)

The Navy Headquarters also announced that the Northern Fleet TRKR Peter the Great will transit to the Indian Ocean in December after the Venezuelan exercises where she will take part in joint exercises with the large anti-submarine ship (BPK) Admiral Vinogradov from the Pacific Fleet. The Russian ships should also conduct exercises with India in January. The joint exercise Indra-2009 will have protection of maritime commerce and anti-piracy and anti-terrorism training as its main focus.


(...)

Peter the Great Update: Guns, guns, guns

Gist: The nuclear missile cruiser Peter the Great repelled an enemy attack. True, it was a notional enemy. The ship carried out a practice firing. Sailors say that the Atlantic is not just a unique firing range. It is priceless training - on land, there isn't the kind of rocking like there is here.

On board the TRKR Peter the Great in the Atlantic Ocean. These shots are from the ship's helo. It is searching for submarines in the area around the cruiser. It lowers the hydrophone and that which is normally hidden is visible to the operator on the monitor. The radius of operation for the device is dozens of kilometers.

The crew is performing the mission along a designated route and reports back to the ship, either on the air or after returning to the ship, about any surface contacts gained.

Coordinates of unfriendlies are relayed to the ship. This is the Marine zone. They are also conducting training. The reliable AK-47 isn't the main Marine weapon. They also have a machine gun. It weighs 45 kg and fires 600 rounds a minute at a range of 3.5 km. It can even be used as an anti-aircraft weapon.

You can know the feeling of a powerful Russian weapon because its a large caiber weapon.

The enemy survived even after large caliber machine gun fire. Two shots from a grenade launcher dealt a shock. The enemy was destroyed, but a new enemy appeared on the horizon. The main universal gun mount will deal with that one.

The AK-130 is the most powerful weapon in its class. It has a 22km range. That means that the enemy could even be beyond the horizon and not visible. It takes a few seconds to transmit the coordinates of the target from the Peter the Great's radar to her guns and only a few seconds more to send a 70kg shell. When this gun is fired, all the external hatches on the ship are secured and to stand as close to the gun as I am now is deadly. Sixty tons of metal and explosives fly from the barrels of this gun in a minute. It can destroy anything.

Small, fast moving surface targets or fixed, unseen land-based targets. Also low-flying missiles, the most threatening kind of missile. They can also be repelled.

The deck on the Peter the Great shakes when the AK-130 fires. The 27,000 ton ship recoils a bit.

The "metal-cutter" is in operation. That is what the sailors call the anti-air Kortik system, which fires 6000 rounds/second.

This kind of training will go on for almost the entire week on the way across the Atlantic to the shores of Latin America.

Peter the Great Update: Clip Your TLDs to Your Belt Please

Gist: The Peter the Great has been at sea for almost two months now and is on her way to Venezuela. Our team takes a look at the heart of the ship, the reactor compartment.

The first step of the Russian Navy flagship's journey is done. Now the Peter the Great has passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, the gates of the Mediterranean Sea. Ten thousand km of sailing is behind with friendly visits to Libya, Turkey and France. Ahead lies three weeks of sailing across the rough Atlantic and Venezuela. The Peter the Great is moving at 18 kts, almost 32 km/hr. Those numbers don't sound like much, but considering great weight of the 27,000 ton ship, it becomes clear what kind of power plant is required to move such a mountain of metal. Our camera team was permitted to check out the reactor zone. To go down there with the crew we needed to obtain special passes with a lot of signatures and stamps on them.

"This is the most powerful shipboard engine in the world. It allows the ship to circle the earth at the equator 50 times. The steam generated by the reactor turns turbines that each generate 70,000 hp."

That's a total of 140,000 hp. The nuclear power plant could supply electricity to a small city. The processes in the reactor are controlled second by second, 24 hours a day by special equipment manned by specially trained sailors. Each one receives a dosimeter and when leaving the reactor area they revceive a scan for radiation.

"So what has gone on during the month and a half at sea...well, so far there hasn't been any leak of radioactive substances into the sea or ocean."

And here is the TsUP - central control. The sailors jokingly call it "being in the soup". From here all the electrical supply systems for the ship are controlled. The scale of the equipment is grandiose - huge buttons and breakers and redundant systems.

"The ship is built for battle. If the ship is damaged in battle, it has to tranfer operations to secondary systems and continue to function."

This is the main propulsion shaft on the Peter the Great. There are two on the ship, each more than 100 meters long. The reactor makes 400 degree high pressure steam which turns two screws, each with a diameter of three meters and weighing seven tons. These screws literally make the water boil, throwing up a white wake larger than any other non-aircraft carrier warship in the world and trailing the ship for kilometers.

Burning the OPTAR, Pt 2

The Navy's presence in the world ocean will grow before the end of the year according to the Navy PAO, Igor' Dygalo.

According to Dygalo, the presence of the Navy will be in the interests of stability and security around the world.

In November, a Pacific Fleet task group will set off from Vladivostok for the Arabian Sea and make a series of port calls in the Indian Ocean as well as perform joint exercises with a detachment from the Northern Fleet.

The Baltic Fleet escort ship Neustrashimyy will continue to maintain the security of Russian flagged shipping around the Horn of Africa, Dygalo added.

Meanwhile, at the end of this Zvezda TV report on the upcoming deployment, the reporter announces that the Baltic Fleet tanker Yel'na has arrived in the Gulf of Aden. You may remember that she is carrying a detachment of marines with orders to not allow pirates to get within rifle shot.

Now we are up to four task forces at sea plus a forward deployed combatant on Horn of Africa station simultaneously.

- Peter the Great and Admiral Chabanenko
- Moskva plus accompanying ships (I'll guess the Ladnyy)
- Admiral Kuznetsov plus accompanying ships (I'll guess the BPK Severomorsk and maybe the EM Bespokoynyy from the Baltic Fleet or maybe the RKR Marshal Ustinov)
- I'll guess the Pacific Fleet flagship RKR Varyag and...who?

Any bets on if all active Russian Navy cruisers will be forward deployed at the same time?

Do the Russians Have OPTAR to Burn or What?

Northern and Black Sea Fleet ships will carry out joint exercises in the Med.

A Northern Fleet strike group led by the Admiral Kuznetsov will leave Severomorsk and head for the Mediterranean Sea for exercises with ships of the Black Sea fleet led by the missile cruiser Moskva.

The ships will conduct a month long exercise simulating battle between two strike groups.

"The main goal of the deployment - resolution of operational-strategic tasks and showing the St. Andrew's flag in foreign ports", RIA Novosti quoted sources in the Navy Headquarters.

The Northern Fleet strike group will be on deployment for three months.

Comment: This is pretty big if it happens - when was the last time the Russians had THREE battle groups at sea at once? Plus they're establishing what looks like an East Africa station. Plus they are talking with the Libyans about building a base in Tripoli.

Have the Russians forgotten that oil is closer to $60/bbl and not $120/bbl?

Peter the Great Update: Smash Sandwiches and The Gut

Smash sandwiches are what my shipmates called paninis from the local street vendors and The Gut is the red light district in Toulon, France.




Gist: The task force led by the heavy nuclear guided missile cruiser Peter the Great is setting course for Toulon, France. The time spent on the way to Toulon is not idle. On the way the crew prepares the aviation assets for day and night flying. Our correspondent watched the training:

The Russian K-27 helicopter over the Med. It has two tasks - to patrol the waters around the task forces and to maintain the skills of the pilots and navigators. They have to fly dozens of hours.

The training proceeds from easy to hard, from flying in daylight conditions to flying in full darkness, landing at night on a moving ship, that is the best form of training.

The helos on the TRKR Peter the Great and the BPK Admiral Chabanenko are modernized with the newest Russian control systems and the newest Russian satellite navigation systems (GLONASS) on board.

Most of all its important to train with the instruments on board so as not to use outside sources, so mainly we fly around on instruments.

The flights are pre-planned and the routes are planned a day ahead of time. The pilots and navigators use the charts to find the nearest airports and the places they can land on dry land. The aviators admit that the conditions in the Med are great for flying and the the high temperatures in the Med do not bother the Severomorsk dwellers.

The temperature isn't a problem, there's air conditioning on the helo. If it's a little warm, you can add some cool air and if it's a little cool, you can add some warm air. In general it doesn't interfere.

The Black Sea Fleet tug Shakhter delivered spare parts, equipment and stores. This will allow the cruiser to spend an extra month at sea since the local stores aren't big enough to carry that much. While the Peter the Great just stands there because of her great size the Shakhter pitches up and down two or three meters. In these conditions the stores load it done with jeweller's precision.

These meetings are planned for the whole route the task force takes. One or two times a week they will meet a tanker or tug, which will deliver stores like fuel, drinking water and food. In the future is the transit through Gibraltar and then exercises in Venezuela. For now we are at anchor in the Med, preparing for the joint exercises between the two countries.

Peter the Great Update: Port Call, Turkey

I wonder what happened to Latakia/Tartus? Debkafile said the whole Russian fleet was there already.



The Chabanenko and the Peter the Great prepare for a four day port call at an unspecified naval base in Turkey. The honor guard practices for the reception and the crew is apparently forced to write letters home. The letters will be sent via diplomatic pouch back to Russia. After four days anchored out in Turkey, the task force will finally head to Venezuela.

Peter the Great Update: Great Guns!

The Peter the Great conducted exercises with light deck guns while steaming toward Latin America. According to the narration, the crew conducts these types of exercises every day.

Peter the Great Update: Port of Call, Tripoli

In a move guaranteed to boost recruitment and retention levels, the Peter the Great makes a port call in Tripoli, Libya. Read and listen carefully and there is a hint that the promised port calls in Tartus and/or Latakia, Syria, are cancelled.




Gist: The ships of the task force converge in Tripoli, Libya, where the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Chabanenko and support vessels pulled into port while the Peter the Great anchored out in the roadstead. The Baltic Fleet ship Neustrashimyy also pulled into port. The port visit will last until 13 October. While there the ships will reprovision and the crew will get shore leave. Having completed all of their tasking in the Mediterranean Sea, the ships prepare for further sailing. They will set course for South America where they will participate in exercises with the Venezuelans in November. The Neustrashimyy will continue on to fight Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.

Peter the Great Update: Approaching Africa

Gist: In two days the Peter the Great will make a port call in Tripoli, Libya. The crew prepares for a friendly visit. The ship's education officer, K1R Arkadiy Mogilivets explains that the crew is visiting a foreign port and that the fact that they have to understand that they must follow all applicable local customs and laws.
Meanwhile the crew continues to conduct training. The helo conducts flight ops every day except when the ship is in the waters of littoral states.

Peter the Great Update: Avast Ye Scurvy Dogs and Prepare to Be Boarded!

Gist: Board a captured ship and free the hostages alive. This is what Marine Spetznaz practiced today aboard ships in the Mediterranean Sea. Spetznaz repelled out a KA-27 and boarded the hijacked ship, which was played by the Peter the Great. The Northern Fleet ships have joined with ships from the Baltic and Black Sea fleets on their way to exercises with Venezuela. They also practiced a medevac from one of the tankers and Marines practiced hand to hand combat. They will conduct a demonstration in one of the foreign ports.

Peter the Great Update: PtG Enters the Med

Nothing in here worth gisting, just nice video of the Straits of Gibraltar while the Peter the Great steams toward Tripoli, Libya.

Peter the Great Update: The Pillars of Hercules

The Peter the Great prepares for an "historic first", the entry into the Med by the Russian Navy flagship:



Gist: After traveling 6000km across the rough Atlantic, the Peter the Great prepares to enter the Med for a port call in Tripoli, Libya.

Cut to a meeting of the Navigation planning meeting where Nav Department is discussing the details of the entry into the Med through the Stratits of Gibraltar. The flag navigator explains to the rest of the navigation department how the straits are 65km long and that there are certain international rules they must follow while transiting the straits. They are not allowed to anchor out, carry out repairs or reduce speed and the task force must proceed at regular intervals in a line ahead formation. The straits are busy and 120 vessels a day proceed through the area. Unedifying interview with the navigator and commentary follows.

Cut to a shot of the crew watching a broadcast of TV Zvezda on the TV for some random reason.

Peter the Great Update: oooo rah. PtG to Enter Med by End of the Week

Marines on the Peter the Great practice for the big exercise with the Venezuelans. Port call in Libya announced.



Gist: After covering 4500km with at least 14,000km to go and passing through many time zones the battle group still lives on Moscow time. The Marines on board began an exercise at 0800 defending the ship as it passes through narrow straits like the Straits of Gibraltar which the Peter the Great will pass through at the end of the week when she receives new orders from the CinC Navy. Our Marines will be exercising not only in Venezuela, but also during a port call in Tripoli, Libya.

The exercises start by checking the cleanliness of weapons and assembling and disassembling weapons which they can do with their eyes closed. Everyone has their assignment on deck. They are armed with mortars (!), machine guns and grenade launchers.

(Practice firing with the target at 500m)

With 45 corridors totalling 20km, the Marines have to be in good shape.

Segment about a member of Nav Department celebrating his 30th birthday at sea.

Segment about the use of AFFF in fire fighting.

Just in Time For Talk Like a Pirate Day!

The Russian Navy will be sinking Somali pirates.

Warships flying the Saint Andrew's Flag will soon appear in African waters. Not for exercises, but with a firm combat mission. The CinC of the Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy announced on Tuesday that Russia will join with international forces in the fight against piracy around Somalia very soon. He stressed that Russia will make a decision about this independently, and not in the context of any sort of international operation (Comment: Probably refering to TF150, currently led by a Canadian officer IIRC). If there is a successful battle with Somali pirates that are regularly attacking shipping, one can say that our country will have finally returned to the ranks of great maritime powers. That status is not just determined by presence in the world oceans, but also by concrete action. By the way, the maritime situation around Somali is a very knotty problem.

A special agreement on the fight against piracy will be concluded with Somali authorities according to a decision made earlier by a judge on the United Nations International Tribunal on Maritime Law Anatoliy Kolodkin in order that our ships presence in Somali waters is fully legal. Officials in Mogadishu have similar arrangements with 11 other countries already including with the USA, UK and France. The agreements stipulate not only military operations against freebooters, but also cooperation with investigative organs of the signatory countries. But none of the eleven nations have had any success (Comment: Here is a perfect example of the Russian press stretching the truth for internal propaganda purposes and setting the Russian Navy up to look as good a possible since the French have recently had a spectacular success against piracy only last week).

It is worth remembering that this year pirates have more than once captured foreign ships and Russian citizens crewing those ships. There is the example of attacks on ships belonging to a Russian company, but flying the flags of other countries. Somalia has become a corsair stronghold of late. Official government power is unable to influence what is happening on the coast. "The government controls only 51 percent of the country," Vadim Zaytsev, a representitive of the general director of the think tank "Rosafroekspertiz", told RBK daily.

Accordingly, Russia simply cannot turn its head from the problem. Indeed among the five basic principles of Russian foreign policy recently articulated by President Dmitri Medvedev, one priority was the defense of life and safety of Russian citizens "no matter where they are". Now it is time to back up these loud words with action. The escort of Russian and in the event of a request, foreign vessels with armed defense against corsair attack - this is the bare minimum that the Navy must be prepared to do. Besides that, thanks to this mission Russian sailors will receive valuable experience in conditions approaching combat.

Meanwhile there are a whole parcel of complications that come with anti-piracy operations around Somalia. "It isn't quite clear for now where our ships participating in raids against pirates will be based," Vadim Zaytsev noted. "Besides that, if Russia is to act effectively, then she risks at the very least a negative image among the local population." According to experts, the relative stability in the region is due in part to piracy. Many Somalis simply do not have any other sources of money and sustenance. And besides that, Somalia is an Islamic country. And if Russia raids this hive of pirates, like the USA did before, this can raise problems with the Islamic world. This could very well lead to Islamic terrorists targeting Russian embassies in African countries in retaliation.

[...]

Nikolay Ivashov

23.09.2008

The following is total wild ass guessing on the part of the Russian Navy Blog:

1. This article appears asserting that "Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy announced on Tuesday that Russia will join with international forces in the fight against piracy around Somalia very soon."

2. The Admiral Chabanenko and the Peter the Great just left Severomorsk on their excellent adventure Sunday.

3. The Task Force will be putting in an appearance in Tartus, Syria on their way to Venezuela.

That makes me wonder - are sailors on the Chabanenko and Peter the Great ordering their "Order of the Ditch" certificates right now? There is a lot of time to kill between now and the middle of November. Granted, it would probably be a pretty short excursion to the Horn of Africa given the timelines involved, but it does make you want to engage in irresponsible speculation.

In fact, it would be downright irresponsible NOT to speculate...

Petr Veliki and Chabanenko Get Underway

On the heels of the Blackjack deployment to Venezuela, a Zvezda TV film crew will be embarked aboard Petr Veliki as her and the Admiral Chabanenko get underway for a three month deployment, in which they will stop in five countries. They will conduct exercises with some of those countries.



Russian naval blogger MuRena sees his friends off with a request for an autograph from Hugo.