MOSCOW, January 05, 2:33 /ITAR-TASS/. Several warships of Russia’s Northern Fleet will participate in large-scale international naval exercises codenamed Northern Eagle and Barents jointly with warships of other countries in the Barents and Norwegian seas in 2014, spokesman of the Russian Northern Fleet Captain First Rank Vadim Serga told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
“The warships from Russia, Norway and the United States will drill interoperability in the planning and holding of joint anti-terrorism and rescue operations at the tripartite international naval exercise Northern Eagle. A big submarine chaser of Russia’s Northern Fleet will take part in the naval exercise,” Serga said. In his words, the warships of three countries will have a joint air defence drill in the Barents and Norwegian seas involving aircraft, drills to rebuff the attacks of small-size speedy targets, rescue a ship in distress, save a person in the sea, joint nighttime and daytime drills and a communications drill.
“The search-and-rescue forces of Russia and Norway will be engaged in the naval exercise Barents,” Serga noted. The search-and-rescue forces of the Russian Northern Fleet and the Norwegian Navy will drill the search, rescue and evacuation of crewmen being in distress in the sea onboard the ships and aircraft as well as the cleanup of an oil spill in the sea.
Serga recalled that the drills of interoperability in emergency situations at sea became traditional for the Northern Fleet’s naval sailors. Notably, the big submarine chasers Severomorsk, Vice-Admiral Kulakov, the rescue towboat SB-523, airplanes Ilyushin Il-38 and helicopters Mil Mi-8 represented the Northern Fleet in the international naval exercises in 2013.