KALININGRAD, December 8. /TASS/. The Baltic Fleet’s floating workshop PM-82 has transited the English Channel and entered the Atlantic Ocean in its Mediterranean deployment, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.
"The PM-82 departed from Baltiysk in early December. In the next four months, the floating workshop’s crew will provide for the technical readiness of ships and submarines of the Russian Navy’s taskforce accomplishing assignments in the Mediterranean Sea," the press office said in a statement.
This is the fourth long-distance deployment of the floating workshop’s crew to the Mediterranean over the past three years. An anti-terror squad of the Baltic Fleet’s marine infantry is staying aboard the repair ship.
The PM-82 is the third vessel in the series of Project 304 five floating workshops. They are designated to repair ships and vessels, their weapon systems and equipment in distant waters.
Russian Navy’s Mediterranean Squadron
The Soviet Navy’s 5th Mediterranean Squadron served as a prototype for the Russian Navy’s permanent Mediterranean taskforce operating at present. The 5th operational Soviet Squadron dealt with the tasks of naval presence in the Mediterranean theater of operations during the Cold War period. Its main rival was the US Navy’s 6th Fleet. The Soviet Squadron was disbanded on December 31, 1992, a year after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
In 2013, Russia started to create a new operational Mediterranean taskforce. Russia’s new permanent Squadron is dealing with planned and urgent combat missions arising in the Mediterranean theater of operations, including warding off threats to Russia’s national and military security.