Russia announces missile drill outside Norwegian air base

[KhalaiMakhlooq]

Russia announces missile drill outside Norwegian air base

10 April 2019 | https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/s...missile-drill-just-outside-norwegian-air-base

A NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) is issued by the Russian Air Traffic Service for an area in the Norwegian Sea west of Lofoten Islands for the period April 11 to 14.

Expert says such missile launch may be intended to send a signal to NATO that Russia is capable of expanding its bastion defence beyond the Barents Sea.

While Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Tuesday had her first visit to Russia in five years, meeting President Vladimir Putin at the Arctic Forum in St. Petersburg, the Russian Northern Fleet’s two largest missile cruisers could be preparing for a missile drill outside Northern Norway.

“We register that they have established an NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) 100 nautical miles northwest of Lofoten,” says Lt. Col. Ivar Moen, spokesman for the Norwegian Armed Forces’ operational headquarters.

“They have their full right to do so as this is international waters and airspace,” he says in a phone conversation with the Barents Observer.

This is, however, a new pattern of exercising not seen before by the Russian Northern Fleet. Both during the Cold War and in post-Soviet times, navy drills with live shootings have traditionally taken place in the Barents Sea, north and east of the Kola Peninsula.

The NOTAM issued by the main Air Traffic Management Centre of Russia is valid for the period April 11 to 14, from 3 am to 7 pm, the time when it is daylight this period of the year. The warning says danger area is up to 66,000 feet.

“Tempo danger area active due Russian Navy rocket test,” the NOTAM reads.

A NOTAM is a notice filed by a country’s aviation authority to alert potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect safety of a flight. Passenger aircraft do not overcrowd the skies outside Northern Norway, but periodically flights from Russia and the Middle East to North America are flying through the area for the missile test warning.

Lt. Col. Ivar Moen says it is fully a Russian responsibility to ensure safety at sea as well as in the air.

Following Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine in 2014, NATO broke off regular institutional relations with Russia. The operational headquarters of the Norwegian Armed Forces, however, maintains weekly Skype-talks with the Northern Fleet’s commanders in Severomorsk.

Ivar Moen, though, says the announced missile launch has not been brought up as an issue in the Skype-dialogue.

“We will monitor what happens with the resources we consider relevant,” he says adding, “It happens outside our coast.”

Norwegian newspaper VG was first to report about Russia’s planned missile shooting.

Andøya Air Base

In a real-war scenario, a cruise missile from a Russian warship from the area now announced could hit Andøya Air Base within minutes after launch. The base is home to Norway’s fleet of Orion surveillance aircraft, used to detect and monitor Russian submarine activities in the Barents- and Norwegian Seas.

Norwegian Orion surveillance aircraft. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Some few tens of nautical miles further east is Evenes airport, to become home to the new P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft replacing the Orions by 2022. Evenes will also serve as Norway’s northernmost forward operating base for the new F-35 fighter jets.

To the southwest of the missile launch area is Bodø Air Base, today the main home for Norway’s fleet of F-16 fighter jets.

Also within range is Bardufoss Air Base in Troms which serves the Norwegian Army and is regularly used by British, American and Dutch militaries for cold climate training, like this winter when British Apache helicopters for the first time operated in the Arctic.

Expanding Bastion Defense

Senior Research Fellow with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Kristian Åtland says the announced missile lauch may be intended to send a signal to NATO that Russia is capable of expanding its bastion defence beyond the Barents Sea, conducting sea denial operations in the maritime spaces of northwestern Europe, all the way to the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) gap.

“While adhering to international law and conforming to international notification requirements, the Russian Northern Fleet seems to be in the process of expanding its exercise and weapon testing activity in a southwestern direction. The latest NOTAM case falls into this pattern,” Åtland says to the Barents Observer.

Russia’s Bastion defense concept. Courtesy of the Norwegian Ministry of Defence.

In a potential conflict with NATO, Russia is believed to roll out the bastion defence to establish several layers involving various capabilities to ensure freedom of sailing for the strategic ballistic missile submarines. An important part of such scenario is to prevent NATO forces access in the immediate neighborhood to the naval bases on the Kola Peninsula.

“Much like the Russian missile drills announced in the Norwegian- and Barents Seas during last year’s Trident Juncture exercise, the upcoming missile test is probably meant to serve a StratCom (strategic communications) purpose,” Kristian Åtland elaborates.

The missile launch announced last November did not happen, as the Russian warship “Marshal Ustinov” just sailed through the area en route from the Baltic to the Barents Sea. Last year’s NOTAM was in an area slightly to the south of this week’s announcement.

“Whether or not the announced live-fire drills will take place as planned remains to be seen, but I think the likelihood is high, given the at-sea presence of missile cruisers “Peter the Great” and “Marshal Ustinov”, Kristian Åtland says.

The press service of Russia’s Northern Fleet informs that both the missile cruiser “Marshal Ustinov” and the nuclear-powered missile battle cruiser “Pyotr Velikiy” are out on mission to conduct firing in the Barents Sea.

Although not confirmed that any of two ships will be launching cruise missile(s) in the area northwest of Lofoten Islands, there are no other reports about Russian navy activity in the area.

A captain onboard a Norwegian cargo vessel sailing between Svalbard and Tromsø told the news-portal Aldrimer.no that he could see “Pyotr Velikiy” sailing south outside the coast between Hammerfest and Tromsø on Tuesday around noon.

The battle cruiser, Russia’s only nuclear-powered surface warship, is armed with a variety of missiles, including anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, as well as cruise missiles that can hit land-targets.

Nuclear submarines

“In the near future, the crew of the cruiser “Pyotr Velikiy” will conduct a series of exercises on anti-submarine and air defense, as well as continue to perform combat training exercises with the use of practical weapons,” another note from the Northern Fleet posted on Russia’s Defense Ministry’s portal reads.

At certain stages of the drill, the crews of the two warships will interact with several nuclear submarines of various types and classes, which are also sailing on combat training, according to the information from the Northern Fleet.

The large missile cruiser “Admiral Ustinov” (left) at port in Severomorsk. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Nuclear powered missile cruiser “Pyotr Velikiy” at port in Severomorsk. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Army is back in Finnmark

Last September, Norway’s former land forces commander and intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Kjell Grandhagen, warned that in case of a bigger conflict it is quite likely that Russian armed forces would initiate a ground operation against Norway’s northernmost region, the Barents Observer reported.

“Imagine for a second, that you are the commander of Russia’s northern military district responsible for the defense of Russia’s most valuable assets. You look at the map and you realize that your key bases are located within artillery range from what you would label NATO territory. Could you live with that? Well, I couldn’t,” Grannhagen said in a speech at a army summit in Oslo.

He added that a Russian ground operation against Finnmark region consequently must not be excluded.

Norway is currently bringing its army back to Finnmark, with a new Ranger Company in Kirkenes at the border to Russia and a reestablished Battalion at Porsangermoen, both parts of the new Finnmark Land Defense.

The first 150 new soldiers arrived at Porsangermoen earlier this winter.

On Monday, Norway’s Minister of Defense, Frank Bakke-Jensen, visited the Garrison in Porsanger.

Inspecting the soldiers expertise when exercising combat fighting in the cold snowy landscape, the Defense Minister told the Barents Observer that this is all due to the new security landscape in northern Europe.

“This will be a substantial strengthening of the army in Finnmark,” Bakke-Jensen said.

Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen (in civilian) on visit to Porsangermoen military camp on Monday. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Soldiers at Porsangermoen camp in Finnmark. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

 

[Fenrir]

They do this every year, and especially when NATO is conducting Cold Response and Trident Juncture exercises. We'll surveil their exercise, they'll launch a few missile, bloviate and everyone will go about their business afterward. Big freaking deal.

Not like this is the first time Russia's drilled in those waters.

 

[Foxtrot Delta]

Why did norway put their base so near russian missile platforms!!

 

[KhalaiMakhlooq]

Russia demonstrated complex live-fire bastion defense exercise outside Norway

11 April 2019

The Northern Fleet’s largest missile cruisers, long-range bombers, anti-submarine aircraft, helicopters and fighter jets and most likely submarines took part in an exercise not seen before.

The Northern Fleet describes it as “shock forces”, the naval group that formed out from the Barents Sea and sailed south into the Norwegian Sea. On Thursday, live-shootings took place.

“I can’t remember having heard of a similar or equally complex Russian live-fire exercise in this part of the Norwegian Sea,” says Kristian Åtland, Senior Research Fellow with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) to the Barents Observer.

Åtland previously said the announced drill could be intented to send a signal to NATO that Russia is capable of expanding its bastion defence beyond the Barents Sea, conducting sea denial operations in the maritime spaces of northwestern Europe, all the way to the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) gap.

Additional to the two warships, the “Pyotr Velikiy” nuclear-powered battle cruiser and the missile cruiser “Marshal Ustinov” a wide range of aircraft took off from air bases on the Kola Peninsula on Thursday and flew around North Cape before heading south to the exercise area some 100 nautical miles west of Andøya in Northern Norway.

The exercise area was announced up front with warnings to shipping and aviation valid from April 11th to 14th during daylight hours.

Commenting on the announced Russian drill earlier this week, spokesman for the Norwegian Armed Forces, Lt. Col. Ivar Moen, said to the Barents Observer: “They have their full right to do so as this is international waters and airspace.”

Russia’s Northern Fleet tells in a press release that the first part of the exercise was conducted in the Barents Sea. “At the appointed time, a group of different shock forces of the Northern Fleet made the transition to the southern regions of the Norwegian Sea,” the fleet’s press service writes.

During the transition, the forces conducted a training exercise hunting for submarines, organized air defence for the warships and made search- and rescue support.

During the war game, the missile cruisers fought back enemy forces air attack. Shootings took place in the area announced, at air targets with air defense missile artillery and the AK-130 and AK-630 artillery onboard “Pyotr Velikiy” and with artillery systems onboard “Marshal Ustinov”, the Northern Fleet elaborates.

Anti-submarine Tu-142 planes from the Kola Peninsula joined in and a pair of Tu-22M long-range supersonic bombers from Olenegorsk Air Base south of Murmansk flew to the exercise area. The bombers were excorted by MiG-31BM fighters all the way around from the Kola Peninsula to the Norwegian Sea northwest of Lofoten Islands.

Due to the long distance, refueling took place mid-air supported by Il-78 tanker aircraft.

At the end of the exercise, onboard Ka-27 helicopters from “Pyotr Velikiy” conducted rescue operation for assets in distress at sea.

Commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, is quoted saying “the group of the different shock forces of the Northern Fleet successfully completed all the tasks and confirmed the ability to act confidently and professionally in operational areas of the World Oceans.”

Russia’s massive military show-off outside Northern Norway comes only two days after Prime Minister Erna Solberg met President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg talking Arctic cooperation.

The area northwest of Lofoten Islands was approximately as far north as US Navy aircraft carrier “Harry S. Truman” sailed last October in the final days before NATO’s large scale exercise Trident Juncture kicked off further south in Norway.

Read More: https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/s...-fire-bastion-defense-exercise-outside-norway

Related Video

 

[nahtanbob]

Why did norway put their base so near russian missile platforms!!

in peacetime you want to be close for reconnaissance

 

[KhalaiMakhlooq]

Beware, NATO: Russia Just Showed Off Supersonic Bombers, S-400s and Su-27 Fighters

14 April 2019 | https://nationalinterest.org/blog/b...sonic-bombers-s-400s-and-su-27-fighters-52482

Russia’s Southern Military District (SMD) is conducting a series of high-profile combat exercises in defiance of NATO’s Operation Sea Shield 2019, the latest in an ongoing cycle of military escalation in the Black Sea region.

The initial exercise involved escort and interception drills with the Tu-160 heavy bomber and Su-27SM fighter: "Fighters of the 4th Air Force and Air Defense Army of the Southern Military District escorted Tupolev-160 “white swan” strategic bombers and practiced interception of air targets,” reported the SMD press office.

The Su-27SM is the first upgrade package for the prolific Soviet Su-27, offering expanded air-to-ground capabilities to round out its multipurpose role. Though it certainly hasn’t gotten any younger in the avionics department, the Su-27SM and its predecessor are widely fielded by the Baltic and Black Sea fleets as a plentiful and cost-effective choice for interception runs.

As it turned out, the Tu-160 and Su-27SM drills were only the opening salvo in the Kremlin’s response to Operation Sea Shield. The following day, the SMD reported a massive coastal defenses exercise involving “more than 50 planes and helicopters” and the S-400 anti-aircraft system, as well as the “Bal” and “Bastion” coastal defense batteries. A Beriev A-50 early warning and control AWACS plane--due to be replaced in the coming years with a modernized A-50U boasting a superior Shmel-M radar system--stayed airborne for five hours to direct several of the drills.

Bal is a Kh-35 anti-ship missile launched from a coastal defense platform, whereas Bastion-- or K-300P-- is a mobile defense platform carrying P-800 “Onix” anti-ship cruise missiles. S-400 systems are frequently tested in Crimea, often in conjunction with ancillary missile defense systems like the Pantsir S1 and Tor M1/M2. A combined arms approach may seem superfluous, given that the S-400 exceeds the aforementioned systems in almost every respect. There is, however, a concrete military rationale at play: in a pitched war setting, the S-400 is harder to overwhelm with a saturation attack ifsupported by secondary anti-air systems. The S-400 can also direct these secondary systems, feeding them tracking information from its search radar.

The Kremlin has made no secret of its displeasure with Operation Sea Shield, NATO’s annual Black Sea exercise; this year’s installment is especially contentious, not only because it was held in the backdrop of the Kerch Strait Incident but also in that it involved a visit to the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. It is only recently, with the 2014 Ukraine crisis, that the northern Black Sea region entered a heightened state of security competition-- namely, an escalatory spiral of Russian military buildup in Crimea on the one hand and NATO Black Sea exercises on the other.

This type of military tit-for-tat is not, in of itself, out of the ordinary; to the contrary, it characterizes the sweep of the Russia-NATO security relationship of the past decade. But what’s rather more uncommon is the Kremlin’s curious forthrightness. Forgoing the customary feigned ignorance that has come to characterize retaliatory exercises, the SMD’s press office minced no words in stating that "the training proceeded against NATO’s naval exercise Sea Shield - 2019, which provided a good background for the Black Sea Fleet and the Air Force and Air Defense units to practice combat tasks in real conditions.” NATO, for their part, insists that Operation Sea Shield 2019 is a “long-planned” exercise that is completely unrelated to events in Ukraine.