SEVASTOPOL, November 29. /TASS/. The teams of Bal and Bastion mobile coastal defense anti-ship missile systems held drills in the southern Krasnodar Region to practice wiping out a hypothetical enemy’s warships in the Black Sea, the Black Sea Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.
"In the course of the drills, the Bal and Bastion coastal defense anti-ship missile systems stationed on the Taman Peninsula conducted marches to positioning areas and practiced equipping and camouflaging their positions. After that, the teams detected, identified and locked on a naval target," the press office said in a statement.
At the final stage of the drills, the gunners practiced delivering a missile strike against a mock enemy’s warship with a subsequent change of their launch positions and the delivery of repeat strikes. The naval target was eliminated by electronic missile launches, the statement says.
The US Sixth Fleet announced on November 25 that the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) entered the Black Sea "on a routine patrol." As the US Navy claimed, "NATO allies and partners routinely operate in the region" to ensure a safe and stable maritime environment and "build partner capacity to improve effectiveness and interoperability."
Meanwhile, Russia’s National Defense Control Center reported on November 25 that the Russian naval forces had started to track the US destroyer’s deployments in the Black Sea. As the Defense Ministry of Russia stressed, the activity of US naval ships in the Black Sea is becoming an increasingly destabilizing factor in the region and one of the aims is to exploit Ukrainian territory for military purposes.