Navy

Ships from Russian Baltic Fleet rotate on deployment

2018-04-20 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

The Russian Baltic Fleet rotates some ships on deployment to the Mediterranean.

The frigate Yaroslav Mudry and the tanker Lena have left the Baltic and will join the Russian maritime forces in the Mediterranean. Yaroslav Mudry is a Neustrashimyy-class frigate, which has been in service since 2009. The last long deployment of Yaroslav Mudry was in 2016.

At the same time, the landing ship Minsk is returning from deployment. Minsk is a Ropucha-class ship from 1984, and it left Kaliningrad on 4 October 2017. During its deployment the ship has participated in the unofficially termed operation “Syrian Express” which brings logistical supplies to the Russian forces on the Khmeimim Air Base and to the Syrian government forces.

Minsk conducted a port stay in Lisbon in Portugal before setting course for home on Wednesday 18 April.

Helicopter crashes on Russian problem ship Ivan Gren

2018-04-13 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

A Russian Ka-29 helicopter has crashed in the Baltic Sea on Thursday 12 April. The incident occurred while practicing deck landings at night on the Navy’s new landing ship Ivan Gren. That reports flot.com. Both pilots died in the crash.

Ivan Gren is still undergoing sea trials. Official commissioning by the navy is planned for next month, and the Yantar shipyard does not expect the accident to delay the process. The ship did not receive damages from the crash.

It would be fair to call Ivan Gren a troubled project. Works on the ship started in 2004, and delivery has been delayed many times. The ship was launched in 2012, and sea trials began in 2016.

A problem with the ship’s astern propulsion has proven particularly difficult to remedy. Apparently it is challenging to control the ship’s movements while going astern. On the next ship in the series, Petr Morgunov, the shipyard will change the direction of rotation on the propellers to see if that helps. If the reversed rotation gives better manageability, it will be changed on Ivan Gren as well.

The Russian Navy has decided not to order more ships of the Ivan Gren class than the two already under construction.

Warship diplomacy: British intervention in the Baltic from 1800-1801

2018-04-13 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

For those interested in history, I recommend this article by Jason Lancaster on CIMSEC about the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

It was a naval battle where the British fleet defeated the Danish. The story is fascinating. Greed and poor political decisions had led Denmark into a dilemma between choosing a war with Britain or losing the protective support of Russia that kept Sweden from annexing Norway. Denmark chose the war with Britain, fully aware that they would lose.

It is also a story about how the leadership qualities of state rulers matter. Both Paul I of Russia and Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden were eccentric figures, borderline crazy with a fascination for war and an idea of making their nation great again.

American journal calls Kuznetsov a bad aircraft carrier, Russian media has a fit

2018-04-07 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

A somewhat entertaining dispute has erupted between the American website The National Interest and the Russian press corps.

The National Interest has made a list of the 5 Worst Aircraft Carriers Ever Put to Sea, and the Russian Admiral Kuznetsov is on that list. That does not go over well in Russia.

For example Lenta.ru has collected statements from a range of Russian military experts who disregard the American website as a propaganda tool in an anti-Russian campaign.

The Russian experts also complain that the American journal includes Admiral Kuznetsov in a list of “aircraft carriers” because actually it is an “aircraft-carrying missile cruiser”. Those things are apparently not comparable at all.

One of the Russian experts explains that Admiral Kuznetsov held up very well during the operations in Syria (despite losing two aircraft), and another claims that the Russian ship brings more strategic weight to the battlefield than a modern American carrier which is little more than a floating airport.

Ah, well…

The other four ships on the list are the British HMS Eagle from 1924, the French Bearn from 1927, the Japanese HIJMS Kaga from 1928, and the American USS Ranger from 1934.

The Russian media seems convinced that the list is prioritized so Admiral Kuznetsov is named the worst aircraft carrier ever. As far as I can tell, it is just in chronological order.

HMS Ocean retired and sold to Brazil

2018-03-27 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

HMS Ocean was retired from the Royal Navy today. The helicopter carrier officially left service at a ceremony at HM Naval Base Devonport with the participation of Queen Elizabeth.

Ocean has been the flagship of the Royal Navy since it was commissioned into service in 1998. Now she will be handed off to Brazil for the price of £84 million.

The role as flagship will be taken over by the new aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. However, the first one will not be operational until 2020.

I had the personal privilege of serving as a liaison officer to Ocean during a port stay in Copenhagen back in 2003. For a young Danish naval officer it was quite an experience to stand on the huge helicopter deck.

Poland extends service life of Perry-class frigates until 2024

2018-03-20 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

Poland has extended the service life of its two Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates until 2024. That reports Janes.

The prolonged service time has required some additional maintenance work and upgrades of subsystems. ORP General Kazimierz Pulaski has already completed these works during a scheduled docking. This includes the installation of Link 16 and an upgrade to the command system to allow automatic detection and tracking of aerial and surface targets. The 76 mm. gun (Mark 75) has been replaced with a refurbished analogue. Fire control systems, radar, and generators have been updated, and the Mk 13 missile launchers have been upgraded to mod 4 block 6 standards. The SM-1 air defense missiles have been upgraded, and the ship has received more modern electronic warfare equipment and air defense systems.

There is also equipment which is not upgraded, and in order to ensure the prolonged service life of the ships, the use of some systems like the Phalanx 20 mm close-in weapon system has been restricted.

The other frigate, ORP Tadeusz Kosciuszko is expected to receive the upgrades in the second half of 2018.

These upgrades give a substantial lift to Poland’s frigates. However, it is not cutting edge technology, and 2024 is not far away in the grand scheme of things. So Poland will still have to think about possibilities for a renewed frigate capability.

Sailor fell overboard from Russian corvette in Baltic Sea

2018-03-16 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

On Tuesday 13 March a crew member fell overboard from the Russian corvette Soobrazitelny in the Baltic Sea. Eight ships took part in the search-and-rescue operation, but the sailor was not found. That reports korabel.ru.

The incident occurred just after midnight, and at 21:00 the search was canceled. With the present water temperatures around 0 degrees Celsius a person without a survival suit will not be able to survive for more than a few hours.

Soobrazitelny is a Steregushchiy-class corvette based in Kaliningrad.

Comparison between U.S. and U.K. naval officer training

2018-03-08 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

There is an interesting comparison of U.S. Navy and Royal Navy Officer Training in the March edition of Proceedings. Dr. Anthony Wells has experience from both navies and insights into their training programs.

In short, Wells is not impressed by the U.S. seamanship education. He suggests the U.S. Navy can learn a lot from their British counterparts.

I wholeheartedly agree. My critical review of U.S. warship collisions was far from flattering for the U.S. Navy. It can only be described as irresponsible to have people in charge of large ships without proper education in seamanship and navigation.

My own anecdotal experience with the Royal Navy and the seamanship of British officers is that they are very competent.

In 2011, a Russian submarine was close to nuclear disaster in drydock

2018-03-01 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

Kyle Mizokami for Popular Mechanics:

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin has admitted that a December 2011 incident involving a nuclear missile submarine almost became one of the worst nuclear weapons disasters ever recorded.

The Ekaterinburg, a ballistic missile submarine, caught fire in drydock, threatening its load of liquid-fueled nuclear missiles. If the missiles had caught fire, then the resulting explosions would have spewed radioactivity over a wide area, threatening a nearby town of 300,000 people.

There are many reasons for unloading a ship’s weapons before docking, and this is one of them.

Things to look for in near future for Russian Baltic Fleet: Return of AGI and naval exercise

2018-02-21 By Anders Puck Nielsen Leave a Comment

Intelligence ship Fyodor Golovin (AGI) of the Russian Baltic Fleet has been relieved off Syria and is now returning to the Baltic Sea. That reported Russian military news site flot.com on Tuesday. Fyodor Golovin was replaced on duty by the intelligence ship Ekvator of the Black Sea Fleet.

Russia has had a shortage of intelligence ships in the Mediterranean since last April when the intelligence ship Liman sank after a collision with a merchant ship¹. Therefore the Baltic Fleet has chipped in on the duty off Syria.

Apparently Fyodor Golovin has already left the Mediterranean and is now in the Atlantic. It must be expected to arrive to the Baltic Sea within some weeks. The ship does not use AIS, so it is not possible to track the progress directly. However, we can usually count on the British press to give a heads up when there is a passage of the English Channel.

Another AGI, the newly built Ivan Khurs, will soon make the trip the other way. It is currently undergoing sea trials in the Baltic Sea but is expected to join the Black Sea Fleet sometime during the spring where, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, it will take the place of the sunken Liman.

In related news, the Russian Ministry of Defense published information that the Baltic Fleet is preparing for an exercise where more than 20 ships of different sizes and a number of aircraft will take part. So there will be something to monitor for the other fleets in the Baltic region in the time to come.

Liman was hit while at anchor in thick fog without transmitting on AIS. Navies need to get their act together here. I wrote a piece back in September explaining why turning off AIS is a terrible idea, and the points apply equally well to the Russian and the U.S. Navies. ↩