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Russia's Northern Fleet squadron sets out on Atlantic voyage

Special attention will be given to the drilling of response actions to new threats in the sea and ocean zones

© ITAR-TASS/Lev Fedoseev

MOSCOW, December 17. /ITAR-TASS/. An aircraft carrier group of Russia’s Northern Fleet headed by the aircraft-carrying heavy cruiser Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov has set out on a long-distance voyage to the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, Northern Fleet spokesman, Captain Vadim Serga told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

“The aircraft carrier group comprises the aircraft-carrying heavy cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov, large anti-submarine ship Admiral Levchenko, large landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak, rescue tug Nikolai Chiker and tankers Sergei Osipov and Kama,” Serga said. According to him, in the assigned ocean and sea areas the ships will perform a set of training combat tasks under a single scenario and will drill a number of tasks with ships of other fleets.

Special attention will be given to the drilling of response actions to new threats in the sea and ocean zones. The voyage is aimed at ensuring the RF naval presence in the strategically important areas of the global ocean,” the Northern Fleet spokesman stressed.

The voyage is carried out under the flag of Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet, Rear Admiral Viktor Sokolov. The aircraft carrier group is led by Commander of the squadron of missile ships of the Northern Fleet, Rear Admiral Sergei Zhuga.

“The voyage provided for the full combat training of the carrier aviation that will perform tasks in various climatic zones,” the Northern Fleet spokesman said. He added that this journey was opening a series of long-distance voyages of the fleet’s ship in the new academic year. For the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov that had been commissioned with the Northern Fleet in January 1991, it is already the seventh long-distance voyage. Admiral Kuznetsov made the first such voyage within a multipurpose naval group in December 1995.

According to the General Naval Staff, the current long-distance voyage of the aircraft carrier group of the Northern Fleet will last about three months.

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