TASS. August 14. The Russian Northern Fleet’s warships used sonars during drills in the Barents Sea to search for and destroy a notional enemy’s mines, the Fleet’s press office reported on Wednesday.

"The Northern Fleet’s two minesweeping naval groups comprising the minesweepers Vladimir Gumanenko, Mashinist, Yelnya, Kolomna, Kotelnich and Solovetsky Yunga from the Northern Fleet’s All-Arms Kola Flotilla held a series of naval drills at combat training ranges in the Barents Sea. The naval exercise practiced minesweeping groups’ operations to spot and destroy mines," the Fleet’s press office issued a statement.

The Northern Fleet’s sailors also practiced escorting groups of small anti-submarine warfare ships and small missile ships, the press office stated.

"They employed the entire set of anti-mine armament: the sonar systems of searching for anchor and bottom mines and various mine-sweeps. The minesweepers’ crews also carried out [exercises] for ship damage control, joint maneuvering in adverse weather conditions and measures to organize the ships’ air and anti-sabotage defense in an unsafe roadstead," the statement reads.