MURMANSK, February 9. /TASS/. The Northern Fleet’s missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov has deployed to the Barents Sea to fulfil combat training tasks and provide maritime security, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.
"This morning, the missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov departed from the Northern Fleet’s main naval base of Severomorsk for fulfilling comprehensive combat training tasks at sea. The cruiser will also practice the tasks related to providing the security of shipping in the Arctic responsibility area of the Northern Fleet," the press office said in a statement.
The cruiser’s crew will fulfil some combat training elements of a surface ship at sea, hold drills for air and anti-submarine defense of a notional group of ships and vessels. Before its departure from the main naval base, the warship replenished fuel supplies from a tanker in the Severomorsk roadstead in the Kola Bay and conducted drills for anti-subversive underwater defense of a ship during its anchorage, the statement says.
During its previous deployment to the Barents Sea last week, the Marshal Ustinov commanded by Captain 2nd Rank Andrei Krivoguzov conducted training artillery firings against coastal, sea and air targets. The warship covered several hundred nautical miles and practiced inter-operability with aircraft as part of anti-submarine warfare, the press office specified.
The Marshal Ustinov is a Project 1164 missile cruiser. It was laid down at the Nikolayev Shipyard on October 5, 1978 under the name of the Fleet Admiral Lobov and floated out in 1982. The missile cruiser entered service with the Northern Fleet in 1986 under the name of the Marshal Ustinov.
The missile cruiser is armed with 16 launchers of cruise missiles, and also with air defense missile and artillery systems and anti-submarine warfare weapons. The warship underwent its upgrade in Severodvinsk in 2011-2016.