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Russia’s Baltic Fleet warships to search for enemy submarine in large-scale naval drills

The Russian Navy kicked off the ‘Ocean Shield’ large-scale naval drills in the Baltic Sea on August
Steregushchiy corvette Vitaliy Nevar/TASS
Steregushchiy corvette
© Vitaliy Nevar/TASS

KALINNGRAD, August 2. /TASS/. The Baltic Fleet’s Project 20380 missile corvettes have launched operations to search for a notional enemy’s submarine during the ‘Ocean Shield-2019’ large-scale naval drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Friday.

"The corvettes Boiky, Steregushchiy and Stoiky are practicing measures in interaction with the crews of four Il-38N anti-submarine warfare aircraft of the Pacific and Northern Fleets to search for a notional enemy’s submarine and destroy it, using radar and sonar armament and the warships’ anti-submarine weapons," the press office said in a statement.

In addition to the anti-submarine warfare tasks, the corvettes’ crews will perform joint maneuvering and the exercises for radar jamming, hold shipborne drills for radiological, chemical and biological protection and shipboard damage control.

The Russian Navy kicked off the ‘Ocean Shield’ large-scale naval drills in the Baltic Sea on August 1. The naval maneuvers that will last through August 9 involve 49 warships and combat craft, 20 support vessels, 58 aircraft of the Navy and the Aerospace Force and over 10,000 personnel. The naval grouping involved in the maneuvers mostly comprises warships and vessels that took part in Russia’s Main Naval Parade in St. Petersburg and Kronshtadt on July 28.

Project 20380 warships are multi-purpose corvettes developed by the Almaz Central Marine Engineering Bureau (St. Petersburg). They are designated to conduct green-water escort and strike missions and patrol coastal waters. They are armed with universal artillery systems, surface-to-air missile and artillery launchers, supersonic missiles and automated artillery guns and other types of armament. A Kamov Ka-27 helicopter can be based on the corvette.