28 combat ships participated in Northern Fleet Navy Day parade

The Northern Fleet is the largest of Russia’s four fleet’s, but President Vladimir Putin again decided not to fly north to Severomorsk, but instead joined the main naval parade in his hometown St. Petersburg. Similar parades took place in the Pacific Fleet’s locations of Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy as well as in Sevastopol on Crimea where the Black Sea Fleet has its headquarters.

Speaking to the audience of navy officers, Putin focused on the modernization of the fleet, saying: “This year, forty ships and vessels of various classes will be accepted into its composition, and a few days ago, six more world-oceans going new ships were laid down at three leading shipyards in Russia.”

The President said the fleet’s increased combat capabilities “will be achieved through the widespread introduction of advanced digital technologies that have no analogous in the world of hypersonic strike systems, unmanned underwater vehicles, due to the most effective means of defense.”

Although the majority of participating warships in the waters outside Severomorsk on Sunday were built in the late Soviet period, the Russian navy’s weapon systems have seen a significant improvement over the last few years.

The only post-Soviet design vessel participating in Severomorsk was the newest Borei-A class ballistic missile submarine, the “Knyaz Vladimir” which joined the Northern Fleet a few weeks ago.