KALININGRAD, June 7. /TASS/. Over 20 Russian Baltic Fleet ships are involved in drills at the Fleet’s naval practice ranges, its press office reported on Tuesday.
The Russian naval drills are running amid NATO’s massive maneuvers in the central and southern parts of the Baltic Sea.
"In all, the scheduled drills at the Baltic Fleet’s naval practice ranges involve over 20 combat ships and gunboats accomplishing combat training tasks solely and as part of naval search/strike and surface action groups. These are corvettes, guard ships, missile corvettes and gunboats, small anti-submarine warfare ships, coastal and harbor minesweepers, and also small amphibious assault hovercraft and fast-speed boats," the press office said in a statement.
During the naval drills, the naval taskforce is practicing measures jointly with Il-38 anti-submarine warfare planes to hunt down a hypothetical enemy submarine, employing radars and sonars and anti-submarine weapons, the press office said.
"The crews of the naval hunter-killer groups made up of the guard ship Yaroslav Mudry, the corvettes Stoiky and Soobrazitelny, the small anti-submarine warfare vessels Urengoi, Kazanets, Aleksin and Kabardino-Balkaria have begun practicing the tactical drill task of hunting down the notional enemy’s submarine in the Baltic Sea," the statement reads.
After practicing anti-submarine warfare, the crews of the Baltic Fleet’s ships will conduct artillery fire against aerial and naval targets, hold a jamming exercise and carry out shipboard training in radiation, chemical and biological protection and ship damage control, the press office added.
As was reported, NATO will conduct the Baltops 2022 (Baltic Operations) massive drills in the central and southern Baltic waters and at coastal training grounds in Germany, Sweden, Poland and the Baltic states on June 5-16. The drills involve 14 NATO member states, 44 warships and around 100 aircraft.