April 12th: Current Northern Fleet activity

As usual for the season, there is an uptick in NORFLT exercise activity.

On April 10th, a command staff exercise for Northern Fleet Naval Aviation began, which also includes naval activity¹. Several smaller ships of the Kola Flotilla are also at sea for exercises.

The Grisha's have since worked with Ka-27M helos and Tu-142 Bear-Fs².

There was good weather over Kola today so here comes some Sentinel-2 imagery analysis, which amplifies the picture of what's going on. Normal Sentinel caveats apply.

Severomorsk

This image is a bit busy, but since April 10th the Slava-class CG Marshal Ustinov, 1 x Udaloy-class DDG and the Ivan Gren-class LST Ivan Gren has departed. While writing this, a fresh NORFLT press-release confirms that the Marshal Ustinov is participating in the ongoing command-staff exercise.³

Both Gorshkov-class FFGs, the Admiral Kasatonov and the not-yet commissioned Admiral Golovko had self-propelled cranes alongside, indicating possible weapons handling. The Golovko is up north for weapons tests as part of the sea trials, but no PRIPs/NAVWARNs for those tests has yet been issued.

1 x Borei-class SSBN was at the Okolnaya Missile Pier, but as time passes, I can't say if this still is the Generalssimus Suvrov or one of the NORFLT boats.

Gadzhiyevo

4 x SSBNs were alongside. The one which likely had been at the missile-pier for some time now is missing, at sea or moved elsewhere.

Using the criterias outlined in my SSBN article, I assess that 3 x NORFLT SSBNs currently are at sea, which is within norms.

Olenya Guba

I don't include the imagery here, but the main residents, both Delta Stretch SSANs and the Yantar were alongside.

Zapadnaya Litsa

Clouds obscured parts of the southern base, so I'm not sure if the last Yasen-class SSGN remained alongside. I assess that one Yasen remains at sea.

Imagery from April 10th.

All Oscar-II class SSGNs remained alongside today, April 10.

This concludes today's short post.

Regards

The Lookout

1. https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12463579@egNews

2. https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12463775@egNews

3. https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12463781@egNews