Russia locates major naval exercise in previous disputed area of the Barents Sea

Warships are on the move in the Pacific, Baltic and Northern fleets, as well as the Caspian flotlilla. Russia on Wednesday started exercise July Storm with 150 warships and supply vessels, 120 aircraft, 10 coastal missile systems and 15,000 military personnel, the Defense Ministry reported. 

The Northern Fleet's headquarters in Severomorsk has not yet detailed how many of its navy ships are participating, but a video posted by the press service shows the frigate Admiral Golovko and the cruiser Marshal Ustinov both sailing out of the Kola Bay on course for the Barents Sea. 

A different sequence of the video shows two minesweepers sailing out from the naval town of Polyarny. 

Exercise July Storm is taking place in the period from July 23 to 27 and is headed by Admiral Moiseev, the former chief of the Northern Fleet that last year was appointed by Vladimir Putin to be the top commander of the Russian Navy.

Last December, Moiseev warned about unfriendly states increasing their military presence in the Arctic. “The Arctic is one of the key regions where the confrontation of the world’s leading states is unfolding," he said at the time. 

The press service of the Defense Ministry on Wednesday said that during exercise July Storm "it is planned to test the readiness of the fleet and flotilla force groups to solve non-standard operational tasks, the comprehensive use of long-range precision weapons, unmanned systems, advanced and modern weapons and military equipment."

The sea ports administration for the Western Arctic, based in Murmansk, has listed several warnings about the navy exercise that will cause disturbances for civilian shipping in the Barents Sea. 

First, sailing inside territorial waters near the Fishermen Peninsula is banned from July 26 to 28. 

Secondly, a 94,000 km2 large area from the shores of the Fisherman Peninsula to outside the island of Bolshoy Oleny in the south to areas far north of Norway's Finnmark region is marked as "dangerous" because missile firing will take place. 

The fact that the danger-area stretches all the way to the shores of the Fisherman Peninsula is an indication that land-to-ship missile systems will be deployed during the exercise. 

About half of the area is in a Russian exclusive economic zone, while the other is in Norwegian waters. The area covers most of the southern part of the previous disputed waters between Norway and Russia.

An agreement on a maritime delimitation line for the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean between the two countries was signed in 2010.

A Norwegian P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flew over the western boundaries of the exercise area Wednesday afternoon, after the Russian Northern Fleet warships had sailed out into the Barents Sea. 

On Tuesday, a U.S. RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic surveillance aircraft flew via Norwegian airspace in proximity to the Kola Peninsula before returning back south via Norway and Finland.