Russian submarines rehearse attack maneuvers in the “NATO Sea”

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Lerato Khumalo

Two Russian submarines simulated a torpedo attack in the so-called “NATO Sea”. NATO maneuvers were taking place at the same time.

Amid rising tensions between NATO and Moscow, Russia has conducted a simulated attack maneuver with two submarines in the Baltic Sea. This unusual move comes at a time when the Western defense alliance is holding maneuvers of its own, reports the news portal Newsweek.

According to the news portal, citing the Russian news agency Tass, the Russian diesel-electric submarines Novorossiysk and Dmitrov conducted a training duel with ammunition without warheads. The crew of the Novorossiysk fired the modified torpedoes at the Dmitrov submarine.

In addition to these exercises, the submarines also practiced combat maneuvers such as evading enemy attacks and detecting, tracking and firing torpedoes against enemy submarines. The Ministry of Defense has not yet commented on the maneuvers.

Both submarines belong to the Kilo class, of which Russia has a total of 65 in service, according to the report. The speed of these submarines is around 20 knots (about 37 km/h), which is not particularly fast, according to the news portal. Unlike nuclear submarines, whose range is essentially unlimited, a Kilo class submarine can only travel about 8,600 miles (about 13,840 km).

However, the Russian Navy appears to be relying more and more on its submarine fleet. It recently sent a flotilla, including the nuclear submarine Kazan, to Cuba, where it conducted maneuvers in international waters near the US coast. Read more about it here.

NATO is closely monitoring these developments and has responded by deploying a P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft to monitor the movements of the Kazan submarine, which is armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles.

At the same time, the Western defense alliance conducted its own Baltic Operations (Baltops) – multinational military exercises in the Baltic Sea – in which the newest member, Sweden, also took part for the first time. Against the backdrop of these tensions between Russia and NATO, it remains to be seen how the situation will develop.

At the same time, a decree on a Russian government website caused a stir among NATO members: it proposed changing Russia’s maritime border in the eastern Baltic Sea. However, the decree was later deleted.

Because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Finland and Sweden decided to join the NATO defense alliance. The waters surrounding Finland and Sweden were nicknamed “NATO Lake” as a result of the countries’ accession.