Posted on 12/07/2007 6:30:44 AM PST by Esther Ruth
Russian Navy seeks bluewater revival
By Vladimir Petrov
07 December 2007
The Russian Navy has resumed efforts to revive its global maritime presence, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told President Vladimir Putin at a meeting in the Kremlin on 5 December.
The minister informed Putin that from this date the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) would dispatch a Joint Naval Task Force (JNTF) to the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. The expedition, which will last until 3 February 2008, is aimed at ensuring a naval presence "in the operationally key areas of the world oceans" and establishing conditions for secure Russian maritime navigation, Serdyukov told the president.
Three tactical exercises, involving combat ships and aircraft as well as missiles fired at naval and coastal targets, are being planned during the mission.
(Excerpt) Read more at janes.com ...
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hCBuLMhW11lOP4Sy-qsSdxiLmVzwD8TBEMJG1
Russian Navy Group Goes to Mediterranean
By MIKE ECKEL – 1 day ago
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia dispatched an 11-ship aircraft carrier group to the Mediterranean Sea, the defense minister said Wednesday — part of what he said was an effort to resume regular Russian naval patrols on the world’s oceans.
The announcement by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is the latest move by Russia to expand its military presence internationally and flex growing economic and military strength.
Speaking at a Kremlin meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Serdyukov said an aircraft carrier, two anti-submarine ships, a guided missile cruiser along with refueling ships from Russia’s Northern and Black Sea fleets and 47 aircraft would be part of the group in the Mediterranean.
He said the group would conduct three tactical exercises with real and simulated launches of sea- and air-based missiles and make nearly a dozen port calls.
excerpt
It will probably still be true any renaissance of the Red Star navy will retain it’s time honored tradition of being traceable by the oil slicks and rust stains on the oceans.
Was that a fleet carrier or a jump jet version like the Brits have?
5.56mm
It’s a fleet carrier deploying SU-33 fighters off ski-jumps(similar to the British ships!!).
I’d love to see those goobers again in a Med port, althought they probably won’t march in formation down the street like in the Soviet days. You could always get the locals to wing a few tomatoes at them.
Unlike American sailors, the Russians probably won't have any money to spend in port. I don't think they pay their sailors.
With payload, of course.
Or tankers?
The SU-33 has good range & payload capacity,but the ski-jump takeoff means that full performance can’t be expected.It is usually used in the air defense/anti-shipping roles.
Something about radioactive half life...
And there was a default pecking order on jobs, depending on what Soviet "Republic" the unfortunate came from, based on historical experience. Some cultures just produce less mechanically adept people.
Then there were the conscripts just not suited to life underwater. They would flip out, and create a hostage situation in port, with a firearm, or even a flare pistol, refusing to go back out, er, under, again.
The Rooskies used to send a diesel sub into the Med back in the 60s, according to an old Navy hand writing on FR a year ago. His destroyer shadowed the sub’s every move and kept a constant sonar “pong” on the sub 24/7.
No money; no honey. Although in Naples, a couple of old tires for the campfire girls might do it.
A Soviet sub is spotted, and he claims the captain rammed it, or tried to ram it.
I think the ruskies had a jump jet carrier for them crappy Yak 38s jump jets they flew. Dont know if I am correct but i think so...
The Soviets had about 5 such carriers-all retired with one being sold to India.The Yaks were hung up almost 15 years ago.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/677816,CST-NWS-haze03.article
Fake a disease, pay a bribe —just don’t serve
MOSCOW | Hazing horrors have boys desperate to keep out of Russian Army
December 3, 2007
BY JANE ARMSTRONG
MOSCOW — At the Moscow office of military legal consultant Dmitry Vereshchyagin, the middle-aged woman rises from her meeting. The weight of the world appears to push on her shoulders and her face is lined with worry.
She denies her son is a would-be conscript to the Russian military. But Vereshchyagin later confirms this. That’s the only reason she is here.
It’s autumn draft season in Russia, and parents are desperate. Many are paying off doctors to diagnose fake medical conditions for their sons and feeling out draft officers to see if they will take bribes. The goal: to keep their sons out of the dreaded Russian Army.
All Russian men between 18 and 27 are required to serve, but it’s estimated that about 90 percent of eligible conscripts avoid the draft.
Five days a week, young men, sometimes with sobbing parents in tow, beg Vereshchyagin to get them out of mandatory 18-month service. ‘’They are desperate when they come,’’ Vereshchyagin said.
They have good reason.
Junior conscripts are targets of a brutal, decades -old tradition called dedovshchina, or rule of the grandfathers, in which old conscripts humiliate, beat and torture young soldiers. Hazing reportedly causes hundreds of non-combat deaths yearly, although human rights activists say the number is in the thousands.
One of the most notorious cases occurred New Year’s Day 2006, when a drunken junior sergeant forced Pvt. Andrei Sychyov to squat for three hours. Gangrene later set into his damaged lower half, and doctors had to amputate his legs and genitals.
Nearly every Russian family has heard a hazing story, and most devise an evasion plan.
If a young man is no longer in school, hasn’t secured a medical waiver and isn’t well connected, he can turn to Vereshchyagin, 27, and his associates for help.
It doesn’t come cheap: Prices range from $600 to $4,000.
excerpted
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