News for the Week

Frukus

The United States, France, United Kingdom, and Russia are conducting join operations and drills in the Baltic Sea. These are annual exercises that build cooperation and security measures between the countries. The following ships are participating in the exercises.

United States-USS Normandy (CG-60)

France- DeGrasse

Russian- Yaroslav Mudriy

United Kingdom- HMS York

Here is a quote from the commanding officer of the USS Normandy,Capt. Kevin Hill

“Another essential part to promoting peace and security throughout a region is that we and our partner nations need to be able to work together and stand tall to deter an enemy threat. With these security exercises, we showed that we are more than capable of coming together to stand up for freedom and democracy in a way that says we stand united. We will continue to ensure that the waters of the world are secure and free of oppression.”

Here is an article about FRUKUS

Yuri Dolgorukiy

The Yuri Dolgorukiy has completed all of its sea trials and will soon be accepted into the fleet. The planned day of turnover will be Navy Day, 29 July. Also mentioned by the shipyard is that the former Admiral Gorshkov will be turned over to the Indian Navy by the 4th of December.  

For the Russian speakers out there here is the article. 

Russian Navy News

I found a few interesting articles about what is going on in the Russian Navy this week. Unfortunately it seems that a lot of the news coming out of the Russian Navy is all about what they are doing for other navies. This week is no exception to that. Here is a round up of some of the top news stories for this week.

Yasen

Artist rendering of Yasen class submarine. 

According to a source at the Sevmash shipyards, by 2021 the Russian Navy will have seven Yasen class submarines. 

Here is a quote from the source:

“The first Yasen-class Severodvinsk nuclear powered submarine of Project 855 of the fourth generation will be adopted for service in the Navy this year after the completion of the tests,”

Monday's blog update will provide more details about this class of submarine.

Naval war games with China

Varyag in San Fran.

This week the Russian and Chinese Navies concluded war games in the Yellow Sea. 

Depending on which source you choose there are various opinions about the nature of the war games. According to some the war games only helped to raise tensions in an already volatile part of the world. 

According to another article, these war games are just a sign of growing of friendship and cooperation between Russia and China. 

Russian ships in line formation with ships from other nations.

In my opinion this was just a way for the Russian Navy to raise its profile. If these war games caused tensions to raise, then what did the US led war games in the same region do? 

And here are some other stories without commentary:

Russian built frigate joins the India Navy 

The former Admiral Gorshkov, now Vikramaditya, is preparing for sea trials. 

Blue prints of the Vikramaditya after conversion.