Tag: military exercises

Russia stages massive military exercises in response to NATO provocation

Russian military exercises this week range from the Arctic to the Pacific Ocean and involve tens of thousands of troops, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Kremlin has voiced concern about U.S. plans to beef up its military presence near Russia’s borders. Later this month, U.S. troops are holding joint exercises with forces from EU nations Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Four Polish NATO MiG-29s flew training missions in Lithuania on Monday, under the command and control of an alliance AWACS surveillance aircraft in a small corridor between Belarus and the Kaliningrad region.

Monday’s AWACS mission was flying from Oerland airbase, near Trondheim in Norway. The AWACS flights were part of efforts to bolster NATO members, particularly the Baltic states.

AP reported that Russia plans to station state-of-the art missiles in its westernmost Baltic exclave and deploy nuclear-capable bombers to Crimea in response.

The Iskander missiles will be sent to the Kaliningrad region that borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania as part of the maneuvers, said a Defense Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment publicly.

The official also said Russia will deploy long-range, nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 bombers to Crimea, on the Black Sea peninsula.

In a statement, the Defense Ministry said the Baltic Fleet, the Southern Military District and the Airborne Forces have been brought to the highest stage of combat readiness and have started moving to shooting ranges as part of the drills.

The wide-ranging exercise started Monday, when President Vladimir Putin ordered the Northern Fleet and other military forces on combat alert as part of the exercise in the Arctic. Other units in the Pacific region, southern Siberia and southwestern Russia also launched drills.

The Iskander missiles deployment to Kaliningrad reflects Moscow’s readiness in response to NATO moves to deploy forces closer to Russia’s borders.

The missiles, which are capable of hitting enemy targets up to 500 kilometers (310 miles away) with high precision, can be equipped with a nuclear or a conventional warhead. From Kaliningrad, they could reach several NATO member states.

Meanwhile heavy machine-gun and light artillery fire pounded a district of Donetsk, the biggest city of eastern Ukraine, on Monday and pro-Russian self-defence forces said there has been no lull in the fighting since a February cease-fire.

The Spartak district, adjacent to the city’s now-flattened airport, is one of several sites in eastern Ukraine to have seen continued hostilities between the self-defence forces and the Ukrainian junta since last month’s cease-fire, brokered by France and Germany in the Belarussian capital Minsk.

The cease-fire is broadly holding in the rest of the region, Reuters reported.

US carrier easily ‘sunk’ by old French nuclear sub

A major vulnerability that allowed French submarine to “sink” aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and most of its escort during drills was apparently revealed by the French Navy and Defense Ministry in blogposts that were quickly wiped out, RT reported.

Both the French Defense Ministry and the Navy released and then quickly deleted a news post entitled “Le SNA Saphir en entraînement avec l’US Navy au large de la Floride” (“The SNA Sapphire in training with the US Navy off the coast of Florida”) that praised the 34-year-old French nuclear submarine’s success in “sinking” the American aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt along with the best part of its escort.

The news, before it was deleted was spotted by several outlets, including The Aviationist blog, which disclosed the information which the French authorities initially shared.

The aim of the military games off the coast of Florida which began in mid-February were meant to test the newly upgraded carrier, which had undergone a four year, $2.6 billion overhaul, ahead of the Strike Group’s deployment. The drills involved practicing scenarios of hostile ship boarding, submarine attacks, and enemy ships battles.

During the first phase of the 10 days naval exercises, the French Saphir sub was part of the so-called friendly force to support anti-submarine warfare.

However, in the second phase of the games, the Saphir turned foe and was integrated with the imaginary enemy forces. Its mission became to locate Theodore Roosevelt and to prepare an attack on the strike group by guiding the ships.

During that last stage of the drills, the French sub snuck up undetected on US Carrier Strike Group 12 by penetrating a US defensive screen.

“The Saphir has quietly slipped into the heart of the screen formed by the American frigates protecting the aircraft carrier, while avoiding detection against-pervasive air assets ,” the original release read as quoted by French Challenges blog. “On the morning of the last day, the order of fire was finally given, allowing the Saphir to fictitiously sink Theodore Roosevelt and most of its escort.”

No other details are available about the outcome of the exercise. The strike group will be deployed later this year to provide an overseas forward presence and maintain US maritime security abroad.