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Russian Navy Slava-class Cruiser Marshal Ustinov may be transferred to Black Sea Fleet

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Naval Forces News - Russia
 
 
 
Russian Navy Slava-class Cruiser Marshal Ustinov may be transferred to Black Sea Fleet
 
The Project 1164 (NATO reporting name: Slava-class) Marshal Ustinov guided missile cruiser, which repair is nearing the end in Severodvinsk, may replace her sister ship Moskva in the Black Sea Fleet’s inventory in several years, expert Sergei Ischenko writes in the Svobodnaya Pressa online news agency.

The Russian Navy Main Staff has to modify its operational plans for the Mediterranean and is trying to quickly beef up the task force there. It is looking hard into the feasibility of the temporary detachment of the Northern Fleet’s Marshal Ustinov missile cruiser to the Black Sea Fleet, once she is out of her five-year-long repair.
     
The Project 1164 (NATO reporting name: Slava-class) Marshal Ustinov guided missile cruiser, which repair is nearing the end in Severodvinsk, may replace her sister ship Moskva in the Black Sea Fleet’s inventory in several years, expert Sergei Ischenko writes in the Svobodnaya Pressa online news agency.
A starboard bow view of the Slava Class Russian guided missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov underway. Picture: US Navy
     
A Russian Navy standing naval force better known as the Mediterranean Squadron has operated in the Med since 2013. The operational-level force is made up of warships and auxiliary vessels furnished by all of the four fleets.

Experts suggest that the probability of the current Mediterranean Squadron having one or two nuclear-powered attack submarines should be disregarded. Given the military-political situation vis-•-vis Syria, they are sure to be part of the force. However, the Russian Defense Ministry has never commented on the presence or absence of its nuclear hunter-killer submarines anywhere for a reason.

The Mediterranean Squadron has never had so few ships as it has today. It consists of the Black Sea Fleet’s Pytlivy patrol ship, the Baltic Fleet’s Yaroslav Mudry patrol ship, Samum guided missile hovercraft and three large amphibious assault ships furnished by the Northern and Baltic fleets. At the same time, there are two US Navy aircraft carrier strike groups of the US Sixth Fleet in the region, led by the Nimitz-class Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower carriers.

At various times, virtually all of the current littoral and ocean-going surface ships have operated as part of the Russian Navy’s standing naval force in the Mediterranean. The squadron’s operations tempo has increased with the beginning of the Russian counterterrorist operation in Syria.

As a result, the Russian Navy maintained an impressive force off Syria’s coast at certain times, which comprised large amphibious assault ships of the first rank, corvettes, minesweepers, missile craft and escort ships. Usually the flagship of the squadron has been in the form of missile cruisers, mostly the Black Sea Fleet’s Moskva that has gone from Sevastopol to Syria thrice in 2015 alone.

In addition, the ship has accomplished another important mission in the Mediterranean: its Fort (SA-N-6) long-range surface-to-air missile system would be an important component of the joint air defense system of Khmeimim air base for months at a stretch along with the S-400 Triumph (SA-21 Growler) SAM system deployed near the seaport of Latakia and the Pantsir-S1 (SA-22 Greyhound) short-range air defense systems covering it.
     
The Project 1164 (NATO reporting name: Slava-class) Marshal Ustinov guided missile cruiser, which repair is nearing the end in Severodvinsk, may replace her sister ship Moskva in the Black Sea Fleet’s inventory in several years, expert Sergei Ischenko writes in the Svobodnaya Pressa online news agency.
Recent picture of Marshal Ustinov in final stages of refit and modernization at the Zvyozdochka Shipyard in Severodvinsk in north Russia.
     
When the Moskva in January 2015 had to return to its home station for a long time because she badly needed maintenance, she was replaced by the sister ship Varyag sent by the Pacific Fleet. The Varyag’s deployment resulted in the country’s lacking a single serious strike surface ship in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

In April, the Varyag headed for her home station. Since then, not only the air defense of our air base in Syria has been weakened, but also the Mediterranean Squadron has hardly been able to boast its overall combat power.

The third Project 1164 missile cruiser, the Marshal Ustinov, has been at the Zvyozdochka Shipyard in Severodvinsk since 2011. The Project 1144 (Kirov-class) Pyotr Veliky nuclear-powered missile cruiser was repaired by the 82nd Shipyard near Murmansk, putting out to sea last May for the first time in two years. Her sister ship, the Admiral Nakhimov, will have been upgraded in Severodvinsk until 2018 at the least.

The Black Sea Fleet was to start receiving the advanced Project 11356 (Krivak V/Admiral Grigorovich-class) frigates now in construction in Kaliningrad as far back as 2014. Only the lead ship of the series, the Admiral Grigorovich, has been delivered to date. The second frigate, the Admiral Essen, is still gearing up for a cruise from the Baltic Sea to Sevastopol. By force of circumstances, the Admiral Grigorovich will certainly be sent to Syria as soon as possible, but she will be unable to be a one-for-one replacement for the cruisers.

The Admiral Ustinov’s medium repair and upgrade were to be completed in 2011, because such large-scale work was out of question in 2010, with only ordinary maintenance by Zvyozdochka planned at the time. Then, Moscow decided to equip the ship with advanced weaponry and replace her electronics, wiring and almost all mechanisms.

The Project 1164 cruisers were built by the shipyard in the Ukrainian city of Nikolayev, where their design documentation left in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. As a result, Zvyozdochka’s repair of the Marshal Ustinov slipped behind schedule so much that Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin, supervising military industry, had to fly to Severodvinsk urgently in late May.

The problem is exacerbated by the Moskva’s being expected to occupy the berth to be vacated by the Marshal Ustinov. She will undergo the same repairs the sister ship is being subjected to now. This will take at least four years.

Another problem crops up at once: how long can the Black Sea Fleet do without its flagship? The Defense Ministry’s idea to reassign the Marshal Ustinov to the Black Sea Fleet is due to its desire to resolve the problem. The ship will become the mainstay of the Mediterranean Squadron for several years.
At the same time, it is becoming clear how the strike capabilities of the Mediterranean Squadron will be changing in a year or two.

Most likely, the newly maintained Admiral Kuznetsov (Kuznetsov-class) aircraft carrier with an air wing of Sukhoi Su-33 (Flanker-D) fighters and Mikoyan MiG-29K/KUB (Fulcrum-D) multirole fighters onboard will head for Syria in October. Probably, the Admiral Kuznetsov will be escorted by the Severomorsk (Udaloy-class) antisubmarine warfare ship and the Pyotr Veliky nuclear-powered missile cruiser that has been urgently repaired and has spent her time at training and test ranges.

Come spring, the upgraded Marshal Ustinov will replace them in the Mediterranean. Along with warships of other types, the guided missile cruiser will have added to the punch packed by our naval force in the Eastern Mediterranean until spring 2017 at the least, after which she will head for Sevastopol instead of the Arctic, expert Sergei Ischenko writes in his article on the Svobodnaya Pressa news website.

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