MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. A strike group comprising the Grad and Naro-Fominsk corvettes has carried out electronic launches of Kalibr missiles against conventional enemy targets in Lake Ladoga during Russia’s Ocean-2024 strategic naval exercise, the Defense Ministry said.
"The exercise was performed amid heavy jamming caused artificially to complicate the task facing crews of the naval strike group," the ministry explained.
Also, the warships practiced causing jamming during the maneuvers, the ministry said.
Units from coastal forces of the Caspian Flotilla deployed Bal coastal systems with X-35 missiles to provide coastal support to the convoy of vessels during the exercise. Units from the flotilla "protected the infrastructure of bases in areas exposed to potential air assaults along the shore," the ministry added.
In turn, Su-24 attack aircraft pilots from the mixed aviation corps of the Northern Fleet practiced bombing ground-based targets simulating a camouflaged command outpost of the conventional enemy. "Strikes were delivered using simple and complex maneuvers at low to medium altitudes," the ministry concluded.
The Ocean-2024 exercise, to run through September 16, will involve units and formations from the Russian Navy. The drills will be overseen by Admiral Alexander Moiseyev, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The maneuvers will be a key measure as part of operational and combat training of the Russian Armed Forces this year, the Defense Ministry has said.
The drills, taking place in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, the Mediterranean, Caspian and Baltic seas, involve more than 400 warships, submarines and support vessels, over 120 aircraft and helicopters from Russia’s Navy and Aerospace Forces, about 7,000 pieces of weaponry, military and special equipment, and more than 90,000 personnel.