MURMANSK, May 18. /TASS/. The small anti-submarine warfare ship Onega has completed its transit from the Belomorsk naval base to the Northern Fleet’s main base of Severomorsk for drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.

"In Severomorsk, the small anti-submarine warfare ship Onega will replenish supplies and start practicing inter-operability with anti-subsurface warfare ships of the Kola Flotilla of All-Arms Forces in the Barents Sea. The drills will run in interaction with aviation and the crew of a nuclear-powered submarine that will counteract the anti-submarine forces, simulating a notional enemy," the press office said in a statement.

During its inter-base transit, the crew of the small anti-submarine warfare ship Onega already practiced a part of anti-subsurface assignments in the White and Barents Seas. Now the crew will be accomplishing a program of drills as part of a naval group, the press office specified.

The drills will be held as part of scheduled combat training measures after the winter training period and the small anti-submarine warfare ships will accomplish a whole set of exercises, it said.

The Project 1124M small anti-submarine warfare ship Onega was built at the Zelenodolsk Shipyard in the Volga area, floated out and made operational in the Northern Fleet in 1991. Initially, it was based in the Murmansk Region and was subsequently assigned to the Belomorsk naval base in the Arkhangelsk Region. Warships of this class are designated to search for, detect, identify and destroy submarines.