Kuznetsov’s carrier air wing pilots learn to target long-range drones in Barents Sea combat drill
Parachuted luminous aerial targets served as “enemy drones” when the crews of the fighter jets launched air-to-air missiles as part of the Navy’s July Storm exercise.
Incoming enemy drones were part of the scenario in the Northern Fleet’s large-scale exercise that is in its final phase on Sunday. Four fighter jets were scrambled from the main naval air base, with live-firing at the targets happening in the skies above the Barents Sea, the press service in Severomorsk reports.
"The pilots demonstrated a good level of combat and tactical training skills," the unverified info package said.
Long-range drones launched by partisans inside Russia and by Ukrainian forces south of the border have become a nightmare for the Kremlin's military forces. Several times in the course of the last year, fixed wing long-range drones have been shot down near the military airports of Severomorsk and Olenya.
NATO countries are developing capacities for long-range military surveillance drones for Arctic operations. A first mission with a unmanned NATO RQ-4D drone over Finland took place in 2023 and this spring a similar drone was deployed to an air base in Finland.
A future drone base for NATO partners will be located at Andøya, northern Norway, and Denmark this week decided to buy four long-range surveillance drones for the Arctic and North Atlantic.
The scenario in Russia's on-going exercise July Storm is protecting the strategic important waters outside the naval bases on the Kola Peninsula from enemy forces attacking from the West.
No more carriers
The Su-33 and MiG-29K that took part in the drill were originally supposed to be deployed with Russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. The old carrier, however, has not been to sea since 2017.
Repairs and upgrades conducted over the last eight years were aimed at bringing the carrier back in operation, but the efforts now seem wasted as high-ranking officials over the last few weeks have said in public that it will be logical to scrap the entire vessel since it is outdated anyhow.
July Storm
Among the warships participating in the exercise are the frigate Admiral Golovko, the cruiser Marshal Ustinov and the two destroyers Severomorsk and Admiral Levchenko. Minesweepers and anti-submarine fighters, helicopters and coastal missile systems are protecting the coastal waters between the Kola Bay and the Fishermen Peninsula.
At least two nuclear-powered submarines, the Oscar-II class Orel (K-266) and the Yasen class Severodvinsk (K-560) according to news reports by broadcaster Vesti Murman.
A submarine-launched cruise missile is expected during Sunday, according to a social media report monitoring the exercise.
An area more than twice the size of Denmark in the Barents Sea is marked as "dangerous" as missile impacts take place. As previously reported by the Barents Observer, half of that danger zone is in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea.
Combating naval drones is another task that has been trained along the coast of the Kola Peninsula during the exercise, the Navy's press service reports.
Exercise July Storm ends on the 27th. The last Sunday in July has since 2017 been celebrated as Navy Day, but this year's commemoration will be limited as security threats are troubling large-scale military events in Russia.
The big warships parade in the waters near Kronstadt outside St. Petersburg is cancelled. Up north, the celebrations will for the most take place on shore at the central square in Severomorsk.
