MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. The Northern Fleet’s warships have deployed to the boundary of the Barents and Norwegian Seas in naval maneuvers to search for a notional enemy’s submarines, the Fleet’s press office reported on Friday.

"The Northern Fleet’s anti-subsurface warfare forces have launched a large-scale exercise to neutralize a threat from a notional enemy’s submarines in the medium maritime zone. Two surface action groups comprising the small anti-submarine warfare ships Brest, Snezhnogorsk, Yunga and Onega from the Kola All-Arms Force Flotilla and the Belomorsk naval base have deployed to the boundary of the Barents and Norwegian Seas," the statement says.

During the naval maneuvers, the warships’ crews will be searching for the notional enemy’s subs in interaction with Il-38 and Tu-142 aircraft and the Northern Fleet’s submarines, the press office said.

Also, the pilots and the sailors will practice searching for and detecting a subsurface enemy, tracking it and maintaining a contact before forcing it to surface, and also measures to counter an adversary attack and eliminate the notional enemy’s submarine, the statement says.

"At the concluding stages of the drills, the crews of the anti-submarine warfare ships and aircraft will hold torpedo fire and bombing," according to the statement.

The drills running in the international waters of the Norwegian and Barents Seas will last several days, the Northern Fleet’s press office said.

"Some areas where the combat exercises are underway are closed for civilian shipping," the statement says.