CBS News – April 14, 2023
The entire Russian Pacific Fleet was put on high alert on Friday for snap drills that will involve practice missile launches in a massive show of force amid tensions with the West over the fighting in Ukraine.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the goal of the war games was to test the capability of Russia’s armed forces to mount a response to aggression.
Along with the missile launches, the drills will also involve nuclear-capable strategic bombers and other warplanes besides the naval aviation of the Pacific Fleet, Shoigu said.
The Russian military has concentrated the bulk of its forces on the front lines in Ukraine, but also continued conducting regular drills across Russia to train its forces and demonstrate their readiness.
The Russian Defense Ministry released videos showing warships and submarines sailing off to take part in the maneuvers. As part of the drills, marine units deployed to amphibious landing vessels and coastal defense missile systems moved to firing positions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the war games as part of regular training intended to “maintain the necessary level of the armed forces’ readiness.”
Russia strengthens coastal defences in the Kuril Islands with anti-ship missile launchers. Click to enlarge
Shoigu noted that the maneuvers’ scenario envisages a response to an adversary’s attempt to make a landing on Sakhalin Island and the southern Kuril Islands. In February, Moscow said a Russian anti-submarine destroyer chased off a U.S. submarine near the Kuril Islands.
Japan asserts territorial rights to the Kuril Islands, which it calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union took them in the final days of World War II, and the dispute has kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities.
Last year, Russia announced it had suspended peace talks with Japan to protest Tokyo’s sanctions against Moscow over its action in Ukraine.
Russia has built up its military presence on the islands in recent years, deploying advanced fighter jets, anti-ship missiles and air defense systems there.
The Pacific Fleet drills started days before a planned trip to Moscow by Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu. The Russian Defense Ministry said Shoigu and Li would discuss “prospects of bilateral defense cooperation and acute issues of global and regional security.”
A three-day visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping last month demonstrated the two nations’ partnership in the face of Western efforts to isolate Russia over Ukraine and gave a political lift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Xi’s visit came amid concerns that China may be preparing to provide lethal weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, which China denies. It also comes days after Putin was accused of war crimes, including orchestrating the forced removal of Ukrainian children to Russian territory, by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.
Both Moscow and Beijing have accused Washington of trying to isolate them and to hold back their development as they challenge the U.S. for regional and global leadership.
Putin and Xi said they would increase contacts between their militaries and stage more joint sea and air patrols and drills, but there was no hint that China would help Russia with weapons, as the U.S. and other Western allies feared.
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Britains prime minister Harold Wilson was blackmailed by Mossad to let isarel have the
tools to make its nuclear arsenal
MI5 was totally incompetent since rothschild put his apostles in back in the 30s
we found out througha soviet defector
Wilson had to retire over night
It was JFK who insisted on putting in thier nuclear inspectors which brought mossad to have him killed
Meanwhile, much of the US naval fleet is in port, saving money. Much cheaper to upgrade light fittings in the crews quarters, than be at sea.
Didn’t have time to read all this.
This is one of those recurring News Memes, like the impressively technical-sounding summaries of the latest New Lethal Weaponry.
Too bad Russia’s ATLANTIC Fleet isn’t on high alert…
preparing a 21 gun- salute – using Sarmat Missiles – for Charlie’s coronation!
😂
Carl Jones said:
“Meanwhile, much of the US naval fleet is in port, saving money. Much cheaper to upgrade light fittings in the crews quarters, than be at sea.”
So what exactly is your point? That the U.S. “government” is all about “saving money,” all of a sudden, when it should be directly engaging Russia in warfare at sea?
Harold Smith: my point is that like the Nazi UK, Nazi Amerika is bust.
It costs around $12 million per day to run one carrier strike group. There are 11 carriers, so that’s $132 million per day. You do the numbers.
Of course, the US can’t afford to run them all the time, or even have a full support for each carrier, but it’s the same for bankrupt Nazi Britain. Much cheaper to have a carrier effectively mothballed in Portsmouth.
The Russians and Chinese are pretty close to being ‘combat ready’.
It probably takes about 3 days of form filling, just to fuel one Royal Navy ship. One year, not that long ago, no Royal Navy frigates went to sea for the entire year. Most Royal Navy personnel have never been to sea.
Even NATO drills, are a joke. What is the purpose of assembling a few ships from various member states, to do xyz against abc? There only a remote chance that ships in said drill could be assembled instantly for a real war, and when Russia could destroy every US, French, & British carrier in less than 1 hour. In the late 70’s, Congress was told that US carriers would last 48 hours in a real peer war. How things have changed.