SKR Ladnyy Goes to Italy

SKR Ladnyy (Source: flot.sevastopol.info)

The Black Sea Fleet Escort Ship (SKR) Ladnyy to Exercise With Italians in IONIEKS-2008

Last Sunday the SKR Ladnyy departed the main naval base in Sevastopol' and set course for the Black Sea straits. The ship under the command of K2R Aleksandr Shvarts has set sail for the area around the straits for the second time in a month. In August the Russian warship made a port visit to the Turkish Navy base at Akzas-Karaagach on the Mediterranean and afterwards carried out missions in the Black Sea.

In October the SKR Ladnyy will represent the Navy during the bilateral Russian-Italian exercise IONIEX-2008. These exercises have become tradition and are conducted by the two navies every other year.

The Russian ship will make visits to several Italian ports.

There is a Marine detachment on board the SKR. They will guard the ship during port visits.

Comment: It's already been announced that the Peter the Great battlegroup will visit Tartus, Syria. There are more than five weeks until the exercises with Venezuela, which means it is looking more and more likely to me that the Peter the Great will spend October in the Med. We'll see.

Will the Ladnyy join the Peter the Great in South America after the exercises with the Italians? Will the Russian Navy show ship, the Admiral Chabenenko join the Ladnyy for exercises with the Italians? Will the Ladnyy join or relieve the Neustashimyy off the Horn of Africa after the exercises with the Italians?

Lots of questions as more Russian ships go to sea...

SKR Neustrashimyy Departs Baltic on Deployment

No rest for the weary. After large scale Baltic Fleet exercises, the Neustrashimyy goes on deployment.

From an official MoD statement via Navy.ru:

The guard ship (SKR) Neustrashimyy departed the main naval base in the Baltic, Baltiysk on 24 September for a deployment.

The crew of the guard ship Neustrashimyy, under the command of K2R Aleksey Apanovich will carry out practice combat missions far from home waters.

K1R Oleg Gurinov was named deployment commander by the Squadron.

During the deployment the crew of the Neustrashimyy will train on a whole range of combat tasks, including: general quarters drills, search and destroy drills against a notional enemy, damage control training and anti-air training. There will be crew training on the reliability of the machinery and weapons and an accumulation of experience by commanders at all levels on decision making in complicated and unforseen circumstances.

The Zvezda TV clip notes that the Neustrashimyy just returned from large scale Baltic Fleet exercises in which 20 ships, 2 submarines, 15 planes and other shore based elements participated. The report further notes that the Neustrashimyy is capable of missions "in the littoral zone as well as in distant areas of the world ocean". The Neustrashimyy is armed with the latest missile and artillery weapons and has won fleet competitions and has participated in exercises with NATO vessels during Baltops. The captain of the Neustrashimyy was noted as belonging to a noted Naval family.

Yesterday I speculated about the Peter the Great and the Admiral Chabanenko participating in anti-piracy ops in the Horn of Africa.

Today I will irresponsibly speculate that I think it is much more likely that it is the Neustrashimyy that will participate given that logically, it is akin to using a sledgehammer as a flyswatter for the Peter the Great to participate in anti-piracy ops, although that kind of suits the Russian's style, doesn't it?

The Neustrashimyy as an anti-piracy vessel makes much more sense to me.

As for K2R Apanovich and his distinguished naval family, I found this at warfare.ru:

Deputy Commander --- APANOVICH, Vasiliy, Vice-Admiral, appointed [deputy commander, Baltic Fleet) (Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey 17 May 01).

["Apanovich was born in the Grozno region in Belarus in 1951. He graduated from the Kaliningrad Higher Naval College in 1976, Navy's Higher Officer Classes in 1984 and Navy Academy in 1989. Ananovich occupied various posts in the Baltic Fleet, starting from air defence missile battery commander at the Obraztsovy large anti-submarine ship, chief officer at the Silny and Neukrotimy guard ships, Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsiya cruisers. Later he became commander of the Silny guard ship, then deputy commander of a landing ship brigade. Following that he was promoted to brigade commander and then chief-of-staff of a surface vessels division. Prior to his current appointment, Ananovich commanded the Baltiysk naval base" (Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey 17 May 01).]

Pete and Chab's Excellent Adventure: Underway!

The force that the reporter describes as "a concrete deterrent force that any power that tries to interfere in the internal or external affairs of Russia must deal with" gets underway:



Navy Spokesman Captain 1st Rank Igor' Dygalo describes the deployment as a fulfillment of the vision as conceived by Navy CinC Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy of the Navy returning to forward deployments and as having nothing to do with events in Georgia since both the deployment and the exercises with Venezuela had been planned months in advance.

Besides Venezuela, the task force will visit Tartus, Syria, which makes sense given this a few weeks ago. I assume that one of the other countries with whom the Russians will hold joint exercises will be Syria.

The reporter also noted that immediately upon getting underway in the Barents, NATO in the form of a P-3 Orion took notice, snapping pictures, making video and carrying out electronic reconnaissance. The reporter expects NATO to surveil the battle group every step of the way during the deployment.

Blogger U-96: "Humanitarian Aid to Venezuela Season is Now Open"

Really, there must be an easier way to deliver arms Pampers to Venezuela than in the bomb bay of a Tu-160. You'd think that Petr Veliki could deliver a lot more.

Who knew that Russian bloggers could be so snarky?