Northern Fleet continues with exercises close to Norwegian waters
A strike group of Russian warships, including frigates, submarines and anti-submarine hunters, are currently conducting a series of exercises on the east of the maritime border with Norway.
Warnings issued by the Coastal Administration in Murmansk ban navigation for civilian ships in several areas of the southern Barents Sea due to live-fire exercises continuing until April 30.
The waters are north and east of the Fishermen Peninsula, with Norway's Varanger region visible in the horizon to the west.
The Northern Fleet does not detail the number of participating warships but says in a press-statement that two of the newest frigates, Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Kasatonov take part in the combat training. A third frigate, the Admiral Golovko, is currently sailing north a several months long deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. The vessel was Thursday in the English Channel.
Three anti-submarine ships from Polyarny naval base, the Yunga, Brest and Snezhnogorsk are simultaneously training on submarine hunt off the coast of the Kola Peninsula. One of the Northern Fleet’s submarines act as the enemy
On Thursday, a Norwegian P-8 Poseidon flew over the Russian exercise area in the Barents Sea, according to Flight Radar 24.
The ongoing exercises are a continuation of the Northern Fleet's activities in the maritime border areas with Norway in the Barents Sea. Last week, the Slava-class cruiser Marshal Ustinov sailed the same waters and conducted live artillery shooting at targets onshore at the Fishermen Peninsula.
It is not unusual that the Northern Fleet engages in training on the Rybachii Peninsula. In September 2024, two Bastion complexes fired missiles from the peninsula as part of the Ocean-2024, last year's major naval exercise.
