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After the dramatic sinking of the missile-cruiser Moskva by a Ukrainian missile battery on April 14, the Russian Black Sea Fleet is down to just three major surface combatants. The best and most important of them might be the new missile-frigate Admiral Makarov... Commissioned in 2017, Admiral Makarov is the third, last and most modern vessel in her class. All three of the Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates belong to the Black Sea Fleet. Armed with 24 Buk medium-range surface-to-air missiles and eight Kalibr cruise missiles, all in vertical cells, the frigates can escort other vessels and also attack targets on land....

The Black Sea Fleet returned most of the ships to Sevastopol Bay. Seven Russian ships are moored near the Kuryna pier, including some Project 1135 Thunderbird vessels. Several weeks into the war, the Russian Navy obscured the hull numbers of its ships, in order to make it difficult to identify specific vessels of the same type. A Project 1241 Lightning-1 missile boat is also seen to be moored. Moreover, a Project 1239 Sivuch missile hovercraft is also in Sevastopol. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has a total of three Thunderbird frigates in service: the Admiral Grigorovich (494), the Admiral Essen (490),...

MOSCOW, March 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a proposal to the State Duma on terminating the legal effect of a number of Russian-Ukrainian agreements on the parameters of division of the Black Sea Fleet that were signed on May 28, 1997, as well as on the status and conditions of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s deployment on the territory of Ukraine, on reciprocal payments in connection with the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s deployment in Ukraine, and on the stationing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine (the latter agreement signed April 21, 2010). A report on...

The Democratic National Convention’s final night included a stirring tribute to America’s veterans from a retired naval four-star admiral, complete with a backdrop of jets flying over a row of proud warships. But convention organizers may soon regret it. Norman Polmar, author of “The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet Navy” and other military handbooks, told the Navy Times on Tuesday that the ships were Russian vessels. “The ships are definitely Russian,” Polmar told the military newspaper. “There’s no question of that in my mind.” The ships depicted in the Democrats’ backdrop had radar designs that the U.S. fleet doesn’t...

Moscow, Aug 21 (DPA) A Russian newspaper claimed Friday that suspected pirates who boarded the freighter Arctic Sea were actually agents of the Israeli secret service trying to stop it from smuggling arms into Iran. According to Russian media, the Arctic Sea may have been carrying illegal X-55 cruise missiles destined for Iran hidden among its cargo of lumber. Men acting on behalf of the Israeli Mossad secret service commandeered the ship to divert the weapons away from Israel's regional enemy, the daily Novaya Gazeta said. Citing Moscow publicist Yulia Latynina, the daily pointed to the surprise visit of Israeli...

Just a year ago Ukraine was insisting that Russia would be required to vacate the Crimean naval base of Sevastopol when its old lease expired in 2017. That would have posed serious problems for Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, which is headquartered there. But today, after pro-Moscow President President Viktor Yanukovych took office in February, Russia appears completely secure in its military foothold on Ukrainian soil until at least 2042. In a quiet announcement Monday, Moscow revealed that – with Ukrainian consent – it will "upgrade" its Black Sea fleet over the next decade with at least 18 new warships,...

Russian naval aviation is in critical condition, particularly the aviation units of the Black Sea Fleet, which may lose most of their fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters in the next five to six years. This problem demands a rapid solution. Otherwise the new warships ordered under the 2011-2020 state rearmament program will be useless. So far there are no official plans for equipping the navy with new fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. There have been no public reports or official statements regarding the purchase of new aircraft for the navy citing specific figured or parameters, except for the announcement of the purchase...

A mysterious accident in which one of Russia's most powerful spies was found dead on a Turkish beach has provoked speculation that the deputy head of the country's foreign military intelligence service had been murdered. (snip) The general was last seen visiting the building site for a new Russian military base in the Syrian coastal city of Tartus, which is being expanded as a base for Russia's Black Sea fleet. After his visit, he left for a meeting with Syrian intelligence agents. He then went missing, the Turkish newspaper Vatan reported today. (snip) The Kremlin assigned Ivanov to lead its...

Recently, Roger McDermott, a regular contributor to this publication, offered an excellent overview of the operational-strategic exercise being conducted in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East by the Russian armed forces (EDM, July 6). McDermott correctly pointed to the role of the exercise in testing concepts associated with the “new look” reforms and called attention to the exercise’s testing the speed of deployment of brigades, their combat readiness, and capacity to engage in combined-arms combat in an air/land battle, and their logistical support to sustain combat actions. He also noted that while the scenario dealt with a wide range...

Russia launched large-scale military exercises involving thousands of troops across parts of its southern regions on Monday which Georgia said would violate its territory. The Defence Ministry said the sweep of the week-long "Caucasus 2009" manoeuvres would include the volatile, mainly-Muslim regions of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia - continuing focus of rebel groups seeking to prize the area from Moscow's control. Moscow sees the Caucasus mountains area as a strategically vital zone, the approach to prime agricultural and industrial regions and an important energy transit route. The Kremlin views any challenge here as a threat to the overall security and...

ON ONE LEVEL, maybe it's not surprising that France would sell an ultramodern helicopter carrier to Russia's navy, even as Russia continues to occupy illegally a sovereign nation that enjoys, at least in theory, good relations with France. After all, times are tough. Three-quarters of a billion dollars is three-quarters of a billion dollars. And France has never hidden its inclination to submerge principle when it comes to maintaining a profitable commercial relationship with the nation that supplies so much of Europe's oil and gas. Still, we do find it surprising -- maybe because we remember French President Nicolas Sarkozy's...

Russia's Black Sea Fleet based in Ukraine's Crimea will receive new frigate-type vessels and diesel-powered submarines by 2015, a top naval officer said Friday. The unnamed admiral gave his reaction to RIA Novosti on some media reports that had earlier said at least two corvettes and three subs would join the Black Sea Fleet within the next five years. "In line with the approved shipbuilding program and armaments program until 2015, the Black Sea Fleet is to receive two frigates and three diesel submarines," the admiral said, stressing that he indeed meant frigates, which are capable of traveling much longer...

Viktor Yanukovych, the expected next Ukrainian president, says he cannot rule out Russia's Black Sea Fleet remaining in Ukraine after its lease on the Sevastopol naval base expires in 2017. Preliminary results showed Yanukovych narrowly winning Ukraine's presidential election, and although the official count has not been released he has been congratulated by world leaders including the Russian and U.S. presidents. The Party of Regions leader is expected to move Ukraine away from the determinedly pro-Western stance of President Viktor Yushchenko, who vowed that Russia would have to find a new main base for its Black Sea Fleet once the...

Excerpt - SEVASTOPOL, September 16 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. Pathfinder ship entered on Tuesday the Sevastopol harbor that is home to the Ukrainian navy and Russia's Black Sea Fleet, a Russian naval source said. "This is the second planned visit of Pathfinder at the invitation of Ukraine in the past 10 days," the source said. USNS Pathfinder (T-AGS 60) is an oceanographic survey ship owned by the Military Sealift Command and has a civilian crew and scientists on board. According to official statements, Pathfinder is searching for a ship which sank in the harbor during World War II. The...

Excerpt - The speaker of the Ukrainian parliament says the country's pro-Western governing coalition has collapsed. Parliament now has 30 days either to form a new coalition or to call new elections. The alliance has fallen apart amid infighting between its leaders President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. ~ snip ~

via translation - Moscow denounces politics "unfriendly act" of Ukraine to Russia MOSCOW - Moscow has accused Ukraine on Thursday pursue a policy "unfriendly" to Russia in the context of Russian-Georgian conflict and "complicate" the activity of the Fleet of the Russian Black Sea based in Crimea. "Lately the Ukrainian authorities are conducting a policy toward Russia that can only be described as unfriendly," said Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement. "We are seriously concerned by the fact that Ukrainian leaders constantly blown up the question of the duration of the presence of the fleet in the Black Sea from...

Ukraine dismisses fears of Crimea separatist crisis Aug 18 2008, 10:31 KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A top Ukrainian security official on Saturday discounted any notion of a separatist rebellion in the sensitive Crimea as President Viktor Yushchenko proposed Kremlin talks on the issue of the Russian fleet based there. Ukraine's pro-Western leaders, brought to power by the 2004 "Orange Revolution" and committed to seeking NATO membership, have been increasingly at odds with Russia over foreign policy. Yushchenko, like the United States, backs Georgia in its conflict with Russia over separatist South Ossetia. He further enraged Moscow this week by...

Russia has started dredging at a Syrian port where it maintains a logistical supply point with a possible eye to turning it into a full-fledged naval base, a respected Russian business daily said Friday, according to the Russian Journal. Tartus, the second most important Syrian port on the Mediterranean, could be transformed into a base for Black Sea Fleet warships when they are redeployed from the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, Kommersant daily said, quoting sources in Russia’s diplomatic service and the Defense Ministry. Vladimir Zimin, a senior economic advisor at the Russian Embassy to Syria, said Russia had simultaneously launched...

Russia Refuses Ukrainian Rent Hike By NATASHA LISOVA Associated Press Writer © 2006 The Associated Press KIEV, Ukraine — Russia will not pay more to base its Black Sea Fleet in a Ukrainian port, a senior Russian official said Tuesday, rebuffing Ukrainian demands and setting the stage for the latest dispute between the ex-Soviet neighbors. Russian and Ukrainian officials, however, said talks would continue and agreed to conduct an inventory of disputed lighthouses and other property in the Black Sea, which Ukraine insists it owns and accuses Russia of illegally taking over. The dispute stems from Ukrainian efforts to review...

Ukraine May Raise Rent On Russia's Black Sea Fleet 9 December 2005 A senior Ukrainian official says Kyiv may ask Russia to pay more to base its Black Sea fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Anatoliy Matviyenko, deputy head of the presidential administration, said today that if the two countries are going to switch to world prices, "Ukraine has the right" to raise the fleet's rent to international levels. Russia and Ukraine are involved in a bitter dispute over gas prices. Russia is asking Ukraine to pay world market prices for gas deliveries, offering in return to pay market...