Periscope near Royal Navy’s submarine base at Faslane, with Russian squadron?

Maritime patrol aircraft (MPAs) from France, Canada and the U.S. conducted patrols in conjunction with British surface warships in the search for the submarine in late November and the first week of December, operating out of RAF Lossiemouth in northern Scotland.   The aircraft and supporting airlifters arriving around Nov. 26. The deployment appeared to end last December 6.

The incident began when a periscope was sighted in waters where U.K. and other submarines would normally surface as they head into or out of the Royal Navy’s submarine base at Faslane, home of the U.K.’s ballistic missile submarines.   On Nov. 28, the U.K. reported it was tracking four Russian warships passing through the Strait of Dover and into the English Channel heading out into the Atlantic. 

At the height of the operation, aircraft involved in the hunt included two U.S. Navy P-3 Orions, a single CP-140 Aurora from the Royal Canadian Air Force and a Dassault Atlantique 2 of the French navy. Also involved was one of the U.K.’s Raytheon Sentinel radar-reconnaissance aircraft.

[December 4 Russian squadron with Tank Landing ship Aleksandr Otrakovski enters the Mediterranean]

Russian sailors stand in formation in front of their Russian navy frigate Smolny at the STX Les Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard site in Saint-Nazaire, western France, November 25, 2014. 

Russia’s Northern Fleet convoy of warships and auxiliary vessels led by large submarine chaser Severomorsk has entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Straits of Gibraltar, 

November 29 The Russian ships are transiting  the Channel
Lieutenant-Colonel Jay Janzen, NATO's military spokesman, said the alliance was aware of the Russian ships' location.

"Our information indicates that the ships are transiting and have been delayed by weather conditions. They are not exercising in the Channel, as some Russian headlines would have us believe," he said.   German Chancellor Angela Merkel , on the eve of the November 30 Moldova elections warned Russia not to interfere in post-Soviet states, including Moldova.

Squadron includes BDK-55 Aleksandr Otrakovski BDK LST 775 Ropucha Northern 1977 121st Landing Bde   The Ropucha (toad), or Project 775 class Tank Landing ships are classified in the Russian Navy as "large landing craft" (Bol'shoy Desatnyy Korabl). They were built in Poland in the Stocznia Północna shipyards, in Gdansk. They are designed for beach landings and can carry a 450 ton cargo. The ships have both bow and stern doors for loading and unloading vehicles, and the 630 m² of vehicle deck stretches the length of the hull. Up to 25 armored personnel carriers can be embarked.The 28 ships of this type where commissioned from 1975 to 1991.

[November 28 Russian Navy  foray into Channel isn’t “alarming, it’s normal maritime traffic.”]

November 28, 2014 14:10 

At least four vessels led by the anti-submarine ship Severomorsk plan drills in the expanse of water separating England from continental Europe.

. NATO said the foray isn’t “alarming, it’s normal maritime traffic.”
 Severomorsk «Североморск» 30 December 1987 In service with the Russian Pacific Fleet.

The Udaloy class are generally considered the Soviet equivalent of the American Spruance class destroyers. There are variations in SAM and air search radar among units of the class. Based on the Krivak class, the emphasis on ASW left these ships with limited anti-surface and anti-air capabilities.

Russia’s currency USDRUB, +2.30%  on November 28 traded at 49.965 against the greenback, its weakest level ever..
 Bank of Russia on November 28 said it’s extending limits on currency swaps for the next two weeks in a move to discourage bets on a weaker ruble.
“When you combine the fundamentals that Russia is facing right now,” in the form of Western sanctions and the further fall in oil prices, “it’s going to limit how much [the central bank] can improve the value of the ruble,” said Jameel Ahmad, chief market analyst at FXTM



[February 25 2010 Marshal Shaposhnikov: Russian DDG to Somalia


On February 24, Russia's Pacific Fleet dispatched the large anti-submarine warship Marshal Shaposhnikov, a rescue tugboat and the Pechenga tanker to fight pirates off the Somali coast. 1155. Udaloy class (guided missile destroyer) Udaloy-7 +. 15.2.1986

D. (tons): 6,200-6,700 tons standard
8,200-8,900 tons full load
Speed (kts): 30
Dimensions (m): 163.0-164.0 meters long
19.3 meters beam
6.2-8.0 meters draft
M./Engine: COGAG: 2 M62 cruise gas turbines, 15,000 shp; 2 M8KF boost gas turbines, 45,000 shp; 2 shafts, 60,000 shp, 29.5 knots; 3'000 n.m/14 kts
Man./Crew: 296
Armament:
2 x 4 SS-N-14 or SS-N-22 Sunburn (1155.1)
(R: 90 n.m; S: 2,5 mach)
8 x 8 Kinzhal (SA-N-9) Total: 64
(R: 8 n.m; S: 3 mach; r: 10-12'000 m)
2 SA Kortik
1 x 2 AK-130 DP (130 mm)
4 x 6 AK-630 gattl. AA
(6x30 mm; 6'000 rds/m/mount)
2 x 4/533 mm Total: 30
2 x 10 RBU-Udav ASW RL (R: 1'200 m)
Helicopter KA-32
Electronics: Radar: MR-700 Fregat-A/Top Plate 3-D air search, MR-320M Topaz-V/Strut Pair air/surf. search
Sonar: Zvezda-2 suite with MGK-345 Bronza/Ox Yoke bow mounted LF, Ox Tail LF VDS
Fire Control: 2 MR-360 Podkat/Cross Sword SA-N-9 SAM control, 2 3P37/Hot Flash SA-N-11 SAM control, Garpun-BAL SSM targeting
EW: Start-series suite with Wine Glass intercept, Bell Shroud intercept, Bell Squat jammer, 2 PK-2 decoy RL, 10 PK-10 decoy RL


Compare DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class

USS Truxtun starts exercise alongside counterparts from the Bulgarian and Romanian navies

Drazki

The joint naval exercise of US, Bulgarian and Romanian navies in the Black Sea has started,March 12, 2014. The military exercise was postponed on March 11 due to bad weather. The USS Truxtun, part of the US Sixth Fleet, together with Bulgarian naval frigate Drazki and three Romanian ships will take part in the drill in the Black Sea, BGNES reports. In the 2013 movie Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks. All the DDG interior views were actually filmed on the USS Truxtun (DDG-103)

Albert, 24, and Cobler, 35, are both assigned to the destroyer Truxtun, a Norfolk, Va.-based ship that serves as a set piece in the film

The U.S. Navy announced March 06 that a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Truxtun, has left Souda Bay in Greece and will steam toward the Black Sea -- and the crisis in Ukraine.
Pentagon officials insisted that the move was unrelated to the rising tensions in the Crimean peninsula, which was seized by Russian forces. Still, with the United States and Russia locked in a tense standoff over the future of Crimea, the U.S. moving military assets toward Ukraine is fueling new jumpiness in the already unsettled region.
In one example, the Hurriyet Daily News newspaper in Turkey reported March 5 that a U.S. military ship would be maneuvering through the Bosphorus Straits on its way to the Black Sea in the following two days. The newspaper did not name the ship, but linked the plan to the crisis in Crimea.
Navy officials said the Truxtun's deployment has been planned for months. The ship's crew will train alongside counterparts from the Bulgarian and Romanian militaries. The Truxton carries about 300 sailors and is typically armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and a variety of other weapons.

[March 5]

Ukrainian navy corvette Ternopil, at harbor of Sevastopol, Ukraine. The blankets and mattresses are placed over the side of the ship to hinder any attempted assault.

Ukrainian Navy units in Crimea remained cut off as of March 5 morning as pro-Russian radicals turned off electricity and water supplies, and blocked entrances to military units, the press and information department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported on March 5.

Slavutych, Ukrainian command ship, U510

[January 2013]

The largest in post-Soviet history exercises of the Russian Navy started in the Black and Mediterranean seas. They involve warships of the Black Sea, the Baltic and Northern Fleets as well as other types of armed forces - the Army and the Air Force, including long-range aviation.

The highest status of the exercises is confirmed by the fact that, for the first time, the overall management responsibility was given to the Chief of General Staff, Colonel-General Valery Gerasimov. The exercises that will last until January 29, 2013

[January 11]

"A tactical group of Black Sea Fleet warships headed by the cruiser Moskva will undertake exercises in the eastern sector of the Mediterranean Sea," the Ministry said. "The tanker Ivan Bubnov has fuelled the ships and emergency drills have been carried out. On January 10 the tanker filled its fuel and water tanks and food stores at the Cyprus port of Larnaka."

A Baltic Fleet group consisting of the patrol vessel Yaroslav Mudry and tanker Lena will dock at Valetta on Malta for storing and to allow the crew to rest, the Ministry said. The ships will then head for the eastern Mediterranean, where the two ships will practice stores transfer at sea in day and night and the Yaroslav Mudry will carry out anti-submarine warfare drills.

[December 25]

“The main aim of sending the ships to the Mediterranean is to accomplish the missions set by the navy command, conduct exercises and show the flag.”

On December 24, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov dismissed media reports there were commando units and military equipment for Syria on board some of the warships.

A naval task force from Russia’s Northern Fleet left the Severomorsk base last Wednesday and set course for the Horn of Africa on a new anti-piracy mission, the Defense Ministry said.

It includes the large antisubmarine ship Severomorsk, the salvage tug Altai, and the tanker Dubna, as well as a contingent of naval infantry subunits. The force will travel the length of the Mediterranean, pass through the Suez Canal and relieve the Pacific Fleet task force that has been there on an anti-piracy mission since November.

A Baltic Fleet task force set sail December 18 for the eastern Mediterranean where it will relieve a group of Black Sea warships. The force includes the frigate Yaroslav Mudry, the large landing ships Kaliningrad and Alexander Shabalin, the salvage tug SB-921 and the tanker Lena.

The new anti-piracy mission is expected to reach the region by mid-January.

Russia keeps a naval task force in the Gulf of Aden as part of the international effort to fight piracy off the Somali coast.

On December 17, large landing ships Azov and Nikolai Filchenkov from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet left Novorossiysk for the Syrian port of Tartus. The ships are carrying naval infantry units for protection during the voyage. They are expected to join the Black Sea Fleet task force comprising the missile cruiser Moskva and the frigate Smetlivy in the Aegean Sea on December 28 before heading to Tartus.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich confirmed on December 24 that Russia has a contingency plan for evacuation of Russian citizens from Syria if necessary.

[December 18]
The squadron of five ships that sailed from the Baltic Sea base of Baltiysk includes a destroyer, a tugboat, a tanker and two large amphibious vessels that could evacuate hundreds of people.

Another group of three navy ships departed Tuesday from Severomorsk, the main base of Russia’s Northern Fleet on the Kola Peninsula. While their official mission is anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden, the ships will sail past the Syrian shores and may linger there if need be.

A second coming to East African waters is at hand for the Marshall Shaposhnikov (BPK 543), a large Udaloy Class submarine destroyer which remains one of the flagship vessels of the Russian Navy Pacific Fleet despite the 28 years it has spent on active service.   The Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet has dispatched a fresh squadron of three vessels to combat piracy off the East African coast.

The squadron comprises destroyer Marshall Shaposhnikov, the oil tanker Irkut and the rescue tug Alatau. The flotilla sailed out of the Pacific Fleet naval base in Vladivostok on November 2, heading for the Arabian Sea.

While en-route to the Gulf of Aden the vessels will hold an exercise with the Indian Navy and call at its port of Mumbai. The vessels will also visit Djibouti as they join an international naval anti-piracy force which comprises vessels from the European Union, the United States, China, India, Iran and South Korea.

After a three-month deployment, the squadron will return to Vladivostok in a voyage that will include stop-overs in naval bases in the Seychelles, Thailand and South Korea. The flotilla also becomes the Russian Navy's eighth naval patrol squadron to be deployed with the international forces in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean since anti-piracy and maritime operations began three years ago.







"Our military medics gave the necessary medical help to all of the wounded bandits. We loaded the dead bandit's body onto one of the pirates' boats with the rest of the pirates, and sent it to the nearest coast, towards Somalia." [approximately 290NM east of Socotra Island]

"We loaded water, food and all their other things -- except the confiscated weapons, boarding ladders and navigation tools -- into the pirates' boat," he said.

"The further fate of the released pirates is not known to us."

Brigade Captain Ildar Akhmerov, the commander of a group of warships in Russia's Pacific Fleet, made the comments aboard the Marshal Shaposhnikov, the destroyer that led the operation to free the captured tanker.


"We will have to act as our forefathers did when they met pirates", Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged. "Of course, we will fight pirates with the full force of the naval law."

Liberian-flag Moscow University: hijacked

Fancy Maritime S.A.-owned aframax tanker bound for Hong Kong. Aframax class tankers (Average Freight Rate Assessment (AFRA) tanker rate system) are largely used in the basin of the Black Sea.

MOSCOW UNIVERSITY IMO: 9166417

Crude Oil Tanker

LOA: 243.00m
GT: 56.076
DWT: 106.641
Built: 1999-03
Flag: Liberia
Manager: Novoship - Russia
Owner: Fancy Maritime - Liberia FANCY MARITIME S.A.


Moscow University was built for Fancy Maritime SA, which is owned by Novoship Novorossiysk, Russia. She is managed by Novoship (UK) LtdIn December 2009, she was the first ship to leave Kozmino, Russia with a cargo of oil. She was bound for Hong Kong. On 5 May 2010, Moscow University was attacked by Somali pirates when some 500 nautical miles (930 km) off the coast of Somalia. The crew locked themselves in the ship's radar room. The Udaloy-class destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov was reported to be en route to assist Moscow University.