The Russian Naval Exercise In Mediterranean Has Ended

According to Russian naval news portal rusnavy.com  the largest Russian naval exercise in recent years has finally ended and the ships started to return to their home bases.

Largest for last ten years inter-fleet training exercises of Russian Navy with the participation of Baltic, Northern, Black Sea and Pacific Fleets in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea are nearing completion, as reported by representative of the Black Sea Fleet Captain of the 1 st Rank Vyacheslav Truhachev. 

After the end of the manoeuvres the group of Russain Navy warships was divided into several surface combatant squadrons. ‘Today in the evening warships of the Black Sea Fleet will moor to Limassol, Cyprus, for water and fueling replenishment’, Vyacheslav Truhachev said, as ITAR-TASS reported. 

Conducted exercises started on January, 19 in the Black and the Mediterranean Seas water areas. The inter-fleet group comprises the warships from the North, Baltic, Black Sea and Pacific Fleets: a guided missile cruiser Moskva, a large ASW ship Severomorsk, guard ships Smetlivy and Yaroslav Mudry, large landing ships Saratov, Azov,Kaliningrad, Alexandr Shabalin and service ships, long-range aviation and the fourth Air Force/Air Defense command. 

The main goal of the exercises is to practice the formation of a combined group of forces outside of the Russian Federation, plan its use and perform joint operations within a Navy group under the common plan.

The following warships are in the Eastern Mediterranean according to my tally:

Slava class cruiser Mosvka,
Kashin class destroyer Smetliy,
Udaloy class destroyer Severomorsk,
Alligator class landing ship Saratov,
Amur class repair ship, PM-56,
Boris Chilkin class tanker Ivan Bubnov,
Uda class tanker Lena,
Neustrashimyy class frigate Yaroslav Mudryy,
Sliva class tug SB-921,
Ropucha class landing ship Azov.