Russian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Russia seems to be planning a massive buildup of their naval forces:

Coming a day after an audacious mission to the North Pole to bolster Russia's territorial claims in the Arctic, Moscow's renewed naval ambitions are likely to spread further unease in Nato capitals. "The Mediterranean Sea is very important strategically," Admiral Vladimir Masorin said on a tour of the Russian navy's Black Sea base in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. "I propose that, with the involvement of the Northern and Baltic Fleets, the Russian navy should restore its permanent presence there."

His remarks raise doubts about the Kremlin's denial last year of a newspaper claim that new moorings were being built in the Syrian port of Tartus.

According to Ivan Safronov, the journalist who died after mysteriously falling from a building in Moscow this year, Russia had also begun to expand the port at Latakia, also in Syria. President Vladimir Putin has been anxious to restore Moscow's influence in the Middle East, signing controversial arms deals with both Syria and Iran that have upset the United States and Israel.

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Recently approved, a rearmament program until 2015 for the first time in Soviet and Russian history puts the development of the navy on an equal footing with strategic nuclear forces. Out of $192.16 billion allocated for military rearmament, 25 percent will go into building new ships.

"We are already building practically as many ships as we did in Soviet times," First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said during a visit to Severodvinsk. "The problem now is not lack of money, but how to optimize production so that the navy can get new ships three, not five, years after laying them down."

Ivanov said Russia has a strategy for shipbuilding until 2030 under which warship production is to increase by 50 percent. For the first time in 15 years, a series of 40 frigates has been laid down, with no less than 10 each for the Northern and Baltic fleets. In February 2006, after a 16-year break, the frigate Admiral Sergei Gorshkov had its keel laid down, a surface ship intended for long-range operations in distant seas. The navy has plans for about 20 such ships.

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The outlook is best for submarines. Recently, two Project 667BDRM boats have been modernized, and two more submarines are being repaired and upgraded at Severodvinsk. A new sonar system is being installed to enable them to "see" and "hear" better. Other equipment includes new firefighting systems, nuclear reactor protection devices and the RSM-54 Sineva strategic missile system. Unlike its predecessor, the Skif, the Sineva carries 10 independently targetable re-entry vehicles instead of four. The new missile has a longer range and a modern control system.

It was a Sineva intercontinental ballistic missile that was fired in the summer of 2006 from the North Pole by the submarine Yekaterinburg commanded by Capt. Sergei Rachuk. An underwater launch, especially from under the ice, is a challenging task. The jumbled magnetic fields render ship and missile navigation instruments inoperable, and the crew needs special training for working under ice. But there are also advantages -- under a thick ice cap the submarine remains invisible to hostile observation satellites till the last moment. As a result, a retaliatory nuclear strike would be sudden and unavoidable. Many submarine commanders who managed to do this were later made Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia. Sergei Rachuk, too, received the Gold Star of the Hero from President Vladimir Putin.

But modernization of existing vessels is only part of the rebuilding program. The Sevmash engineering plant at Severodvinsk is building a series of new fourth-generation submarines. These are Project 955 Borei boats. It is for them that the new Bulava sea-launched ballistic missile is being developed.

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A Project 885 Yasen-class multipurpose attack nuclear-powered submarine is preparing to hit the water at Severodvinsk. It is another new fourth-generation submarine able to replace several classes of submarines used in the Russian navy. Professionals say this ship will cause a revolution in submarine building. Russia's third-generation Project 971 Akula submarines are already undetectable in ocean depths. The Yasen will outperform even the latest U.S. Sea Wolf in underwater noise level. In addition, it will be a multipurpose boat. Thanks to its armaments (several types of cruise missiles and torpedoes), it will be able to carry out diverse missions. It will be able with equal ease to chase enemy aircraft carriers and deliver massive missile strikes on coastal targets.

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The head of Russia's navy announced a new building plan that would, in twenty years, make the Russian fleet the world's second largest navy. Apparently a force of about a hundred ships is being planned, to include forty or more nuclear subs, six aircraft carriers and at least fifty newly built surface ships.

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I must say this is all very surprising.

Surprising and interesting. If what is reported are true, then its definitely a challenge to US and NATO naval supremacy.

I found the part about building naval ports in Syria most fascinating...it seems Russia is willing to take the political fallout that will follow.

Russia will soon reestablish two Cold War-era permanent naval bases in Syria, according to numerous media reports this week.

The bases will give Russia a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea.

Damascus agreed to let the Russians move back in as part of a deal to cover $11 billion in debt Syria has accumulated while arming itself with the latest Russian weapons.

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This is interesting as it seems to link the base with Syria's debt payment. It seems Russia is "forgiving" debt to other countries in exchange for arms purchases and possibly even bases.

Russia is said to have fired a missile into Georgia:

Officials of the Republic of Georgia accused Russia today of violating the country’s air space and firing a guided missile, which did not detonate.

“We confirm the fact of a bombing on Georgia’s sovereign territory,” said Gela Bezhuashvili, the Georgian Foreign Minister. “We have incontrovertible evidence that the bombing occurred.”

Russian officials denied the accusation, which has made the already strained relations between it and Georgia, a former Soviet republic, even more tense.

Mr. Bezhuashvili said that radar and eyewitness evidence indicated that two Su-type Russian warplanes entered Georgian air space on Monday and fired a 1,000-kilogram guided missile at the town of Tsitelubani, about 35 miles from Tbilisi, the capital.

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I think the Russian navy will rearm itself with smaller and more efficient fleet of multi-purpose frigates and destroyers, though the tonnage of their destroyers will probably be about same as the newer western navy's frigates.

I do not think they'll build a very large fleet with 6 full-sized aircraft carriers. Though they're perfectly capable of doing so, I just don't see the Russian navy's surface fleet given that kind of resources in the near future.

Russian bombers flew over Guam:

Russian bombers have flown to the Pacific island of Guam for the first time since the Cold War during an Air Force exercise intended to show the nation's resurgent military power, a top general said Thursday.

Air Force Major General Pavel Androsov said two Tu-95 bombers reached Guam, home to a large U.S. military base, as part of an exercise this week.

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From defencetalk...

Russia will soon start construction of a prototype fifth-generation fighter plane, Air Force Commander Alexander Zelin said Wednesday. The Russian Defense Ministry has long announced plans to develop a new-generation fighter under the federal defense procurement program until 2015, and contracted the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the developer of the famed Su fighter family, to design the new aircraft.

"At present, we have completed the development of technical documentation for the fifth-generation fighter and passed it to the production plant, which will start construction in the near future," Colonel General Zelin said.

The new fighter will be built at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft-manufacturing plant in Russia's Far East, but the manufacturer of the engines will be chosen in a tender, the general said.

Sergei Ivanov, a first deputy prime minister supervising the defense industry, said in May that Russia's fifth generation fighter will take to the skies by the end of 2008.

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Are they talking about the PAK-FA here??

Obviously the Russians intend to undetake a major military buildup across the board. If this report is true then the navy will be the centerpiece of this superpower-sized upgrade. Historically having a powerful navy has had mixed results for Russia (contrast Peter the Great's era with the early 20th century and the 70s and 80s). Indeed the Army has proved more important to Russia's safety and power.

That said, I doubt that this buildup will actually fully take place, or that Russia will really get 6 aircraft carriers.

The base in Syria is strategically MASSIVE for the Russians. The earlier years of the Romanov dynasty were dominated by Russia quest for sea access, especially to a port that is not icebound for most of the year. It achieved this by capturing the Gulf of Finland and the Black Sea coast. Since then Russia has been hemmed in by its lack of open-ocean access. To reach the Atlantic, a Russian fleet has to pass through the Baltic, around Denmark, and through the North Sea, which has proved impossible time and again. In the Far North, ice and the GIUK Gap block the route to the Atlantic. The Dardenelles block the route south to the Medditeranian. And in the East, hostile Japan hems in the Far East fleet at Vladivostok.

During the Cold War, the Russian was never able to get around these chokepoints. A base in Syria would get around the Dardenelles, ending the NATO/US domainance that has remained unchallenged there for decades. And if this buildup proceeds as planned, the Russian Navy may have the force necessary to force the GIUK gap. So that's two down. If I were the Russians, I would build a large naval base on the Pacific side of a Kuril Island and move the Far East Fleet there.

That said, I doubt that this buildup will actually fully take place, or that Russia will really get 6 aircraft carriers.

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Well, with natural resources all at these high prices and Russia becoming increasingly assertive in procuring every major resource for state-owned companies like Gazprom and Alrosa.

Russia's economy is growing and so is their control of natural resources. They're also expanding in the arms market and space projects. They're building up revenue for the state across the board. I think that's their plan for getting funding for these kinds of projects.

If I were the Russians, I would build a large naval base on the Pacific side of a Kuril Island and move the Far East Fleet there.

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They actually have a naval base on the Pacific side of the Kamchatka peninsula. They may just build up there. Also, while I'm not sure if Russia actually has any sort of plans for this, they could try getting a base in Algeria to extend their operations to the Western Mediterranean.

Vlad Plasmius said:

They actually have a naval base on the Pacific side of the Kamchatka peninsula. They may just build up there. Also, while I'm not sure if Russia actually has any sort of plans for this, they could try getting a base in Algeria to extend their operations to the Western Mediterranean.

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In fact, the Russian Navy has recently announced plans to build a new surface ship base and rebuild its submarine base around Petropavlovsk. It looks like the Russians may be downgrading Vladivostok in favour of moving the Pacific Fleet to the Kamchatka Peninsula.