MURMANSK, October 20. /TASS/. The crew of the Northern Fleet’s frigate Admiral Kasatonov deployed to the Barents Sea for anti-submarine warfare drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.
"Today the crew of the Northern Fleet’s frigate Fleet Admiral Kasatonov started practicing assignments of anti-submarine warfare drills in the Barents Sea in compliance with the Fleet’s combat training plans for the summer training period," the press office said in a statement.
"The sailors will accomplish a set of missions to search for, maintain contact and track a notional enemy’s submarine with the help of the onboard sonar equipment. At the final stage of the drills, live-fire exercises with the anti-submarine warfare armament will be carried out," the statement reads.
The drills will last several days and will involve several submarines and anti-submarine warfare aircraft of the Fleet’s naval aviation, the press office specified.
The frigate’s crew earlier carried out a check of onboard weapons and equipment by artillery firings at a combat training naval range in the Barents Sea closed for shipping and air flights. On September 29, the frigate Admiral Kasatonov fired a Kalibr cruise missile from the White Sea against a ground target located at a training range in the Arkhangelsk Region in northern Russia.
The frigate Fleet Admiral Kasatonov is the second (the first serial-produced) Project 22350 warship built at the Severnaya Shipyard (part of Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation). The cutting-edge frigate was laid down on November 26, 2009 and floated out on December 12, 2014.
In late 2018, the latest frigate entered shipbuilders’ sea trials that ran in the area of responsibility of the Baltic and Northern Fleets. The Admiral Kasatonov entered service with the Russian Navy on July 21, 2020.
Project 22350 frigates are expected to become the Russian Navy’s most advanced warships in their class. These frigates displace 4,500 tonnes and can develop a speed of 29 knots. They are armed with Oniks and Kalibr missiles and Poliment-Redut air defense missile systems.
The Project 22350 lead frigate Admiral Gorshkov entered service with the Russian Navy in July 2018.