MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. The Northern Fleet’s combat ships repelled a notional enemy’s air attack in the Barents Sea as part of the Russian Navy’s large-scale naval drills codenamed July Storm, its press office reported on Thursday.

"As part of the operational exercise July Storm being conducted under the direction of Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Alexander Moiseyev, the ships of the Northern Fleet repelled an air raid by a notional enemy in the Barents Sea. The missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov, the large anti-submarine warfare ship Admiral Levchenko and the small anti-submarine warfare ships Snezhnogorsk and Yunga repelled a notional enemy’s aerial attack, using air defense weapons and delivering live-fire on simulated aerial targets," the press office said in a statement.

During the exercise, a naval tactical group practiced inter-operability of the crews of radio-technical and missile/artillery combat units in detecting, identifying, tracking and destroying simulated targets. The live-fire on aerial targets involved surface-to-air missile systems and shipborne artillery capable of reliably providing air defense for a naval group in a notional enemy’s aerial attack from various altitudes and directions, the press office specified.

Aircraft of the Northern Fleet’s Composite Air Corps set up and launched aerial targets, simulating an attack by a notional enemy’s combat planes and cruise missiles. The aerial targets were successfully destroyed by combat teams of shipborne surface-to-air missile and artillery systems, it said.

As part of the operational exercise July Storm, the Northern Fleet’s forces are practicing measures to defend maritime economic activity facilities and strategic maritime lanes, and also naval bases, taking into account the nature of modern naval warfare. A major practical episode involves repelling a notional enemy’s air strikes and attacks by uncrewed boats and unmanned aerial vehicles, the press office specified.

On July 23-27, the Russian Navy is conducting the operational exercise codenamed July Storm under the direction of Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Moiseyev in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, the Baltic and Caspian Seas with the involvement of the forces of the Northern, Pacific and Baltic Fleets and the Caspian Flotilla.

The drills have brought together over 150 combat ships and support vessels, 120 aircraft, 10 coastal defense missile systems, 950 items of military and special hardware and more than 15,000 personnel.