Free Republic

Russia will press ahead with its Bulava missile programme, the country's defence minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday, despite another failed test launch earlier this month. "We are certainly not going to cancel Bulava," Anatoly Serdyukov told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an interview to be published Thursday, parts of which were obtained by Interfax news agency. "There's a whole series of problems and unfortunately we can not resolve them as quickly as we would like," he added. "Nevertheless, I believe that the missile will fly." The latest test over Russia's White Sea on December 10 ended in failure, owing...

Russia has delayed, for at least a few months, starting construction of their fourth Borei class SSBN (ballistic missile nuclear subs, or "boomers"). Russia wants to have the new Borei class boats replace the current Delta IV class SSBNs. The first Borei is already in the service, but not yet commissioned, and two others are under construction. The problem, and unofficial reason for the delay, is the inability to make the new Bulava SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) work. The latest Bulava test was a spectacular failure (which lit up the pre-dawn sky of northern Norway, for all to see)....

Russia has delayed, for at least a few months, starting construction of their fourth Borei class SSBN (ballistic missile nuclear subs, or "boomers"). Russia wants to have the new Borei class boats replace the current Delta IV class SSBNs. The first Borei is already in the service, but not yet commissioned, and two others are under construction. The problem, and unofficial reason for the delay, is the inability to make the new Bulava SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) work. The latest Bulava test was a spectacular failure (which lit up the pre-dawn sky of northern Norway, for all to see)....

Russia is to build up its navy over the coming decade, President Dmitry Medvedev announced on Monday, as he visited a Russian guided missile cruiser in Singapore. Speaking to sailors on board the Russian Pacific Fleet's Varyag, Medvedev said around half of Russia's military hardware would have to be renewed by 2020. "Yes, an expansion of our naval presence is planned. Russia can only consider itself a full naval power if it has a full fleet that carries out training and combat tasks," he said, according to official Russian news agencies. The Varyag, built in the 1980s under the Soviet...

In early October, the Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Vladimir Popovkin announced the decision to take two heavy nuclear-powered missile cruisers (TAKR) out of conservation and restore them to the active fleet. This decision coming just one year after the Petr Velikii (Peter the Great), the fourth ship of its class and the only one then in service, set out on a long-range cruise that took it from Severomorsk, the home port of the Northern Fleet to the Mediterranean, Caribbean, South Atlantic, and the Indian Oceans. On this voyage, which lasted from September 22, 2008, to March 10, 2009, the...

In Russia, the fifty man crew for the first Yasen (Graney) class SSGN (nuclear powered cruise missile sub) arrived at the Sevmash shipyards where their boat is being built. The crew was put together four years ago, and has been training ever since. The crew will continue training, increasingly on the first boat of the class (the Severodvinsk), which will be launched in a few months and enter service within two years. Last July, construction began on a second Yasen class SSGN. Russia plans to complete six boats of this class within the next six years. Construction of the first...

The eight suspected hijackers of the Arctic Sea cargo ship that went missing in the Atlantic Ocean this month appeared in court in Moscow on Friday to be formally arrested for piracy and kidnap. "We were saving ourselves, we were drowning," said Igor Borisov, 45, after he was arrested. "We didn't hijack the ship."

The military airlifted the suspected hijackers of the Arctic Sea and most of its Russian crew from Cape Verde to Moscow on Thursday, after the lumber freighter mysteriously vanished and reappeared in the Atlantic. Eleven of the 15 crew members arrived in Moscow, while the captain and three sailors remained on the ship, which was adrift about 200 nautical miles from the West African island nation of Cape Verde. Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said the freighter was sailing to the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. The sailors and their suspected captors arrived in two separate Il-76 cargo jets at the...

Russian authorities flew the suspected hijackers of the cargo vessel Arctic Sea to Moscow on Thursday and took off them for interrogation, dismissing suggestions that the ship may have been carrying weapons. The Russian Navy tracked the ship into the Atlantic after what Moscow has termed an act of piracy and boarded it off the Cape Verde islands in the early hours of Monday, freeing the 15 Russian crewmen.

The Russian Navy has declassified its records of UFO encounters, many of which take place in or around water, reports the Web site of the English-language Russian news channel Russia Today. "They are most often seen in the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the southern part of the Bermuda Triangle, and also in the Caribbean Sea," said one naval intelligence officer quoted by the Web site. Another incident cited involved six unknown objects that followed a nuclear submarine in the Pacific. When the sub surfaced, so did the objects — which then lifted themselves out of the water...

WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military. The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war. ------------------- One of the submarines is the newer Akula II, officials said, which is...

Energy: As Russian attack submarines patrol our eastern seaboard, Moscow signs a deal to help Castro's Cuba drill for oil off the Florida coast. In Moscow and Havana, the cry is "Drill, Comrade, Drill!"Two Russian nuclear attack submarines have taken up positions along our East Coast in recent days, another sign of renewed assertiveness by the former communist giant. The move comes as Moscow inks a deal with the communist relic of Cuba to drill for oil we refuse to go after. The submarines are of the Akula class, a counterpart to the Los Angeles class attack subs of the...

Moscow accused the United States of hysteria today after reports that Russian nuclear submarines were patrolling off the East Coast of America. Russian officials responded vehemently to accusations that they were dabbling in Cold War-style cat-and-mouse manoeuvring but did not deny that two vessels had entered international waters just 200 miles of the US coast. “Activities of Russian submarines in the world’s oceans outside their own waters do not violate international maritime law and are within normal practice,” a military-diplomatic source told the Russian state media. US defence and intelligence officials told the New York Times that two Akula class...

MOSCOW – A top Russian general says two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines that have been spotted off the U.S. East Coast are part of regular patrols. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff of Russia's armed forces, says the patrols are not newsworthy.

You know what this calls for? An Obama speech in Red Square about the common humanity that unites us in a struggle for blah blah blah blah. But the collapse of the Soviet Union all but eliminated the ability of the Russian Navy to operate far from home ports, making the current submarine patrols thousands of miles from Russia even more surprising for military officials and defense policy experts. “I don’t think they’ve put two first-line nuclear subs off the U.S. coast in about 15 years,” said Norman Polmar, a naval historian and expert on submarine warfare… The submarine patrols...

Defense officials say two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling in international waters off the East Coast for several days. The officials tell The Associated Press that while they haven't seen such unusual activity since the Cold War, the military is not overly concerned. They say the Russians have a right to conduct naval exercises and are operating according to international law. U.S. Northern Command would not comment on any details of the Russian submarines movement.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense officials say two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling in international waters off the East Coast for several days.</p>

WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States over recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military.

WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States over recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military. The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war. But the collapse of the Soviet Union all but eliminated the ability of the...

BAIKAL, August 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has made a dive to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Baikal, in the Mir-1 mini-submarine. Putin, clad in overalls for a 4-hour plunge, spoke to journalists on a radio linkup from the deepest point of the lake's southern part 1,395 meters below the surface, saying he was surprised that the water was not transparent and calling it "a plankton soup." In his Saturday's dive, the premier, who on Friday set up a satellite transmitter on a white whale during a visit to Russia's Far East Khabarovsk Territory,...

MOSCOW, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's newest Borey class strategic nuclear submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, has completed the first round of sea trials and is returning to a shipyard in northern Russia, the Sevmash plant said on Friday. Sea trials of the submarine, which is expected to be armed with new Bulava sea-based ballistic missiles, started on June 24 in the White Sea. "A team of workers and submariners has successfully completed the set tasks," Sevmash general director Nikolai Kalistratov said. He added that the Yury Dolgoruky would still have to pass a number of sea trials later this...

Russia’s strategic nuclear-powered Yury Dolgoruki submarine has finally been launched. It is the first submarine, which Russia made after the collapse of the USSR. Russian shipbuilders can be both proud and ashamed of the new cruiser: the works on the submarine began 16 years ago. The construction of the nuclear cruiser was very slow due to the lack of finance. When the submarine was finally assembled, it turned out that the Bulava rocket was not ready for it. Officials of Russia’s Defense Ministry say that the new rocket would be passed into service in 2009 or in 2010. The Yury...

The Yaroslav Mudry: a forerunner of future frigates 16:0722/06/2009 MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik) - On June 19, the escort ship (frigate) Yaroslav Mudry, a long-awaited addition to the Russian Navy, began its maiden cruise on the Baltic Sea. Shortly it is to become an exhibit at the International Naval Show in St. Petersburg. The Project 11540 ship was laid down in 1990, at the same time as the prototype ship of the series, the frigate Neustrashimy, known for its journey to the Gulf of Aden. However, in 1994 work on the Yaroslav Mudry was halted, even though...

ST PETERSBURG (AP) -- Officials say a Russian naval ship accidentally shelled a village not far from St. Petersburg. No injuries were reported in the Thursday evening incident close to the border with Finland. Regional military prosecutor Igor Lebedev says an anti-submarine ship was doing target practice and some shells or rounds fell on houses near Pesochnoye. The Interfax news agency says up to 14 shells from the ship may have landed off-target.

A Russian warship captured a suspected pirate vessel with 29 people on board off the coast of Somalia, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday, citing defense ministry sources. Russia's Admiral Panteleyev anti-submarine ship seized the vessel 15 miles off the coast of Somalia at 1212 GMT on Tuesday, the Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies reported. "Seven Kalashnikov rifles, various pistols and an aluminum ladder were discovered during a search of the ship," RIA Novosti quoted the source as saying. Satellite navigation equipment and a large amount of ammunition was also seized.

MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Navy will conduct at least five test launches of the new Bulava sea-based ballistic missile in 2009, the deputy defense minister for procurement said on Thursday. Despite five failures in 10 trials, Russia's Defense Ministry is planning to complete a series Bulava tests and put the ICBM into service by the end of 2009. "Considering that we must ensure reliable performance characteristics of the [Bulava] missile, we have decided to raise the number of additional test launches to five, if everything goes well," Vladimir Popovkin said. Popovkin, who is visiting the Russian...

MOSCOW, April 6 (RIA Novosti) - Large-scale military exercises involving naval infantry and live artillery support have been launched in Russia's Far East, the Pacific Fleet press service said on Monday. It said 300 personnel were involved in the initial stage of the exercise which would later be increased to 1,000. "Marine infantry units will rehearse defense action to counter the landing of an enemy amphibious assault force with the use of all artillery systems available to them (the Akatsia self-propelled howitzer, the Gvozdika and Fialka self-propelled artillery guns, and the Tyulpan self-propelled mortar)," the press service said. It added...

BEIJING, April 6 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Admiral Vinogradov destroyer arrived on Monday in the Chinese port of Zhanjiang on an official visit that followed a three-month tour of duty in the Gulf of Aden. The destroyer, accompanied by the Boris Butoma tanker, is on its way to its home base in Vladivostok after participating in anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast. The first-ever visit of Russian naval vessels to Zhanjiang will last until April 10, and is to involve a number of cultural and sporting events. The Admiral Vinogradov is an Udaloy class missile destroyer, armed with anti-ship missiles,...

Russian Navy to commission first Lada class diesel sub in 2010 16:59 | 20/ 03/ 2009 MOSCOW, March 20 (RIA Novosti) - The first Lada class diesel-electric submarine featuring extended noise reduction will be commissioned with the Russian Navy in 2010, deputy head of the Navy General Staff said on Friday. The St. Petersburg is a Project 677 diesel submarine developed by the Rubin design bureau, whose export version is known as the Amur 1650. It features an advanced anti-sonar coating for its hull, an extended cruising range, and advanced anti-ship and anti-submarine weaponry, including Club-S cruise missile systems. "The...

MOSCOW, March 20 (RIA Novosti) - About 10 submarines from the Russian Navy are accomplishing various tasks throughout the world's oceans, a source in the Navy General Staff said on Friday. "Up to 10 submarines are conducting various missions around the globe, including training and combat patrol missions with nuclear weapons on board," the source said, adding that most of them are from the Northern and the Pacific fleets. The Russian Navy maintains a fleet of 60 nuclear-powered and diesel-electric submarines in active service, including 10 nuclear-powered strategic submarines, over 30 nuclear-powered attack submarines. Under a new military doctrine, the...

Turkish naval forces completed training exercises with Russia's northern fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, a Russian news agency reported on Monday. For the first time, a part of Russia's northern fleet conducted training exercises with their Turkish colleagues in the Mediterranean Sea, Russia Today said. The naval pilots and ground crew were put through rigorous tests where mistakes are simply not an option. "Every time we double check everything, because if anything happens at sea there's no chance of making an emergency landing like on the ground," said Major Sergey Nagaichenko, a technician taking part in the drill, told the...

H/T to the Drudge report: The Admiral Chabanenko vessel is unfurling black plumes of smoke as it chugs toward Havana Bay, flanked by two smaller boats.

Why would the Russian navy -- a shadow of the former Soviet fleet -- go to the effort to sail to Venezuela? Three reasons. The first one is found in the announcement made by President Medvedev in a November 5 speech --“Russia is returning to superpower status” -- and describing the Venezuelan visit as a “counterweight to U.S. influence.” Whether it is a superpower or not, Russia wants to give the appearance of being one. The second reason is the Russian objective of becoming a global energy superpower, which required them to court potential Latin American allies that are rich...

The fire safety system on a new Russian nuclear-powered submarine malfunctioned on a test run in the Sea of Japan, spewing chemicals that killed at least 20 people and injured 21 others, officials said Sunday. It was Russia's worst naval accident since torpedo explosions sank another nuclear-powered submarine, the Kursk, in the Barents Sea in 2000, killing all 118 seamen aboard. The victims died of poisoning from Freon gas that was released Saturday when the fire-extinguishing system accidentally turned on, said Sergei Markin, an official with Russia's top investigative agency.

TRIPOLI, Libya — Three Russian warships — including a nuclear-powered missile cruiser — have called on the Libyan port of Tripoli for a two-day stop on their way to the Caribbean.

Pirates who seized a Ukrainian ship off the coast of Somalia have reportedly demanded a ransom of $35m (£19m) to release the vessel and its crew.The pirates earlier warned against any attempt to rescue the crew or cargo of the MV Faina, which is carrying 33 battle tanks destined for Kenya. Pirates have seized dozens of ships near Somalia's coast in recent months. A Russian Navy vessel is heading to the region and the US says it is monitoring developments in the area. A spokesman for the pirates, who gave his name as Jalal Jama Ali, told a Somali website...

Excerpt - MOSCOW — A Russian warship on Friday rushed to intercept a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 battle tanks and ammunition that was seized by pirates off the Horn of Africa — a bold hijacking that heightened fears about the surging piracy and high-seas terrorism. ~ snip ~

Russia flexed its muscles in America’s backyard yesterday as it sent one of its largest warships to join military exercises in the Caribbean. The nuclear-powered flagship Peter the Great set off for Venezuela with the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels in the first Russian naval mission in Latin America since the end of the Cold War. Peter the Great is armed with 20 nuclear cruise missiles and is one of the world's most formidable warships "The St Andrew flag, the flag of the Russian Navy, is confidently returning to the world oceans,” Igor Dygalo, a spokesman for...

Russian warships are sailing towards the Caribbean for the first time since the Cold War to take part in a joint naval exercise with Venezuela. In a display meant to show off Russia's military resurgence and to provoke the United States, four vessels from the Northern Fleet set sail on a mission replete with an atmosphere of Soviet-era bombast and brinksmanship. Symbolically at least, the manoeuvres represent the Kremlin's boldest challenge yet to US military hegemony. By sailing so close to the American coastline for a series of exercises with Washington's principal detractor in Latin America, Russia seems to be...

RUSSIAN submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles will test-fire their rockets in the Pacific Ocean between September 15 and 20, a military official was quoted as saying today. "Some missile launches will be carried out in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea" and will hit targets on the Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Russia, said the unidentified official, RIA Novosti news agency reported. A press officer for the governor of Kamchatka, a mountainous region often used for missile tests, told RIA Novosti that local authorities had been forewarned and would inform the local population in due course. Russia's Pacific...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will send a nuclear-powered battleship to the Caribbean for a joint naval exercise with Venezuela, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The maneuvers later this year will be the first Russia has conducted in Washington's traditional sphere of influence since the end of the Cold War. Russia has heavily criticized the United States for sending a sophisticated command ship and two other naval vessels to Georgia, on its southern border, to deliver aid and show support for President Mikheil Saakashvili after Moscow sent troops into Georgia. Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev asked on Saturday how Washington would...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Several Russian ships and 1,000 soldiers will take part in joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea later this year, exercises likely to increase diplomatic tensions with Washington, a pro-government newspaper reported on Saturday. Quoting Venezuela's naval intelligence director, Salbarore Cammarata, the newspaper Vea said four Russian boats would visit Venezuelan waters from November 10 to 14. Plans for the naval operations come at a time of heightened diplomatic tension and Cold War-style rhetoric between Moscow and the United States over the recent war in Georgia and plans for a U.S. missile defense system in...

Venezuela says it plans to hold joint naval exercises in its territorial waters with Russian forces in November. A senior Venezuelan naval officer said four Russian ships would take part in the exercises, which would also involve Venezuelan aircraft and submarines. Correspondents say the move is likely to raise concern in the US, whose relations with Russia have been soured by Moscow's recent conflict in Georgia. Washington already has rocky relations with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. In July, he called for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect Venezuela from the US. Caracas and Moscow agreed to extend bilateral co-operation...

The general also confirmed that a decision to build new aircraft carriers for the Russian Navy had been adopted. Russia's Navy commander, Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky, said in July that the Navy command had decided to form in the future 5-6 aircraft carrier task forces to be deployed with the Northern and Pacific fleets.

Several Russian ships and 1,000 soldiers will take part in joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea later this year, exercises likely to increase diplomatic tensions with Washington, a pro-government newspaper reported on Saturday. Quoting Venezuela's naval intelligence director, Salbarore Cammarata, the newspaper Vea said four Russian boats would visit Venezuelan waters from November 10 to 14.

A top Russian general Tuesday questioned the "extreme level" of activity of NATO naval forces in the Black Sea, saying it could not be needed for the delivery of aid to Georgia or for routine naval exercises, AFP informed. "We're bewildered at the extreme level of activity of NATO naval forces in the Black Sea, which continue to increase their numbers," General Anatoly Nogovitsyn told reporters at a briefing on the conflict. "Only yesterday I said there were nine NATO ships in the sea and by evening another frigate of the US navy passed through the Bosphorus Straits. "We have...

he Russian missile ship “Moscow” has set off from Sevastopol city in direction of Georgia. Russia has expressed concern that NATO is continuing to get a stronger foothold in the Black Sea waters, the deputy chief of Russian General Staff said Monday as reported by RIA Novosti, Russian news agency. According to the news agency, there are a total of 9 NATO ships in the Black Sea equatorial. The NATO military ships are currently in the Black Sea on a humanitarian mission for Georgia.

Russia's Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier heads for Mediterranean As the West awaits Moscow’s threatened reprisal for the treaty installing American missile interceptors at Redzikowo, on Poland’s Baltic coast – signed in Warsaw Wednesday - the Kremlin is striking back in the Middle East – hence Russian president Dimitry Medvedev’s honeyed words of reassurance to Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert in a call he made to Jerusalem Wednesday, Aug. 20. DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that a powerful Russian naval contingent, led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov , left Murmansk on the Barents Sea Aug. 18 to dock at the Syrian...

CARACAS: President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that Russian President Dimitri Medvedev wants to send a Russian naval fleet to visit Venezuela. "Russia has informed us they intend to visit Venezuela, that is, the intention that a Russian fleet should come to the Caribbean," Chavez said on his weekly radio program. "I told the president (Medvedev), 'If you're coming to the Caribbean, we'll welcome you,'" Chavez said, adding that the Russian naval fleet would pay "a friendly and working" visit to Venezuela. Under leftist President Chavez, Venezuela has been seeking closer relations with Moscow, in part to buy military hardware,...

One of the members of the crew of a ship in the Black Sea Fleet, upon his return to Sevastopol is interviewed by a reporter regarding the battle with Georgian cutters off of Abkhazia on 10 August. This is currently leading the news in the Ukraine. The story suggests he is being interviewed by a kpunews reporter. "We took up station guarding the opposed landing on the Abkhaz shore when all of a sudden four high speed targets were detected. We sent out an IFF signal and the targets didn't react. Receiving a command from the flagship, we got into...