MOSCOW, April 22 (RIA Novosti) - The flagship of Russia’s Northern Fleet, the nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky made a simulated detection of a foreign submarine in the Barents Sea during a recent exercise and guided other assets to track it, Fleet spokesman Vadim Serga said on Monday.
The simulated submarine contact was located in international waters north of Kildin Island, and an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) ship and two ASW aircraft, an Il-38 and Tu-142, were sent to the area to track and “engage” it, he said.
Serga did not say when the exercise began.
On Monday, the Pyotr Veliky will continue practising ASW missions in conjunction with other Northern Fleet warships, including a live fire exercise.
The war games are being conducted to test the combat readiness of the Northern Fleet’s ASW assets on alert duty.
The Pyotr Veliky's armament includes 20 P-700 Granit anti-ship missiles, 48 S-300F Fort and 46 S-300FM Fort-M (SA-N-20 Gargoyle) medium-range surface-to-air missiles, with an effective range of up to 200 kilometers(120 miles), 128 3K95 Kinzhal (SA-N-9 Gauntlet) short-range SAMs, and six CADS-N-1 Kashtan gun/missile systems. The cruiser also has its own anti-submarine component of three Ka-27 Helix helicopters.
Its radars are capable of detecting and tracking aerial targets at an altitude of 30 km (100,000 feet) and a range of 300 km (180 miles).
