Russian-Norwegian naval exercise in Arctic waters
Russian and Norwegian warships and military aircrafts will be conducting a joint exercise in the Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea in June. Along with ordinary military drills, the exercise will include joint efforts in releasing an oil platform from armed extremists.
The exercise, called Pomor-2010, will take place in the period June 4-15. A two-day planning conference was recently held onboard the Northern Fleet’s anti-submarine destroyer “Severomorsk”, TV21 reports.
The main goal for the exercise is to drill operational cooperation between Norwegian and Russian navy and air force units in the vulnerable environment of the Arctic.
From the Norwegian side, the frigate “Otto Sverdrup” and the coast guard vessel “KV Nordkapp” will participate together with one Orion maritime surveillance aircraft, F-16 jet fighter aircrafts and Lynx helicopters.
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The Northern Fleet will take part in the exercise with the anti-submarine destroyer “Severomorsk”, one Il-38 maritime patrol aircraft, Su-33 jet fighter aircrafts and Ka-27 rescue helicopters.
The exercise will start with a conference at Norway’s main navy base Haakonsvern outside Bergen, while the debriefing and wrap-up will be held in Severomorsk.
The exercise will consist of four stages, including artillery shooting on targets in the air and on sea, detection and attack on submarine, countermeasures against attack from the air, anti-piracy operations, releasing an oil platform from armed extremists, rescue operations and other drills.
While cooperation between NATO and Russia has experienced hard times over the last years, the Norwegian-Russian military cooperation in the north has remained seemingly unaffected by the higher level relations. Bilateral relations remained the same with frequent meetings even during the Georgia crisis in August 2008.
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