One of the main components of the exercises of the combined group will be the solution of tasks for disembarking amphibious units at several points, as well as tactics for quick loading of personnel and special equipment on board amphibious ships from those places where paratroopers and marines performed their tasks.
In addition to performing landing operations during the exercises, it is planned to implement a phased anti-submarine defense, in which naval aviation - Ka-27 helicopters. Obviously, in the course of the exercises, anti-submarine defense may turn out to be not only part of the general scenario of the exercises, but also a well-known need, because the interest in what Russia is going to do in the Mediterranean waters in the West is simply huge and, so to speak, clearly not healthy. However, more on that later. For now, let us return to what other operations the Russian sailors will perform in January during the maneuvers under consideration.
Such operations will include shipboard artillery firing at targets located both at sea and on land. Attacks on ground targets are planned to be carried out as part of the operation of covering the landing and reverse loading of the landing force. It was entrusted to execute artillery strikes to several ships, including the sentry to “Yaroslav the Wise” (Baltic Fleet) and “Smetlivy” (Black Sea Fleet), RK “Moscow” (flagship of the Black Sea Fleet), and also to the anti-submarine ship Severomorsk (Northern Fleet) . The landing operations themselves will be carried out from the ships Saratov and Novocherkassk (the Black Sea Fleet), Alexander Shabalin and Kaliningrad (both are Baltic Fleet).
During the naval exercises, it is planned to work out training actions related to towing emergency vessels, countering pirate groups in the Gulf of Aden (in particular, to counter attacks of small vessels). Despite the fact that according to media reports, the main Somali filibuster, which is called the Big Mouth in Mogadishu, announced his retirement from the piracy business and the transition to big politics, this is unlikely to result in complete pacification in the waters of the Gulf of Aden. ... Yes, and in the world's oceans today, not only pirates from Somalia are operating. That is why the development of action plans to repel pirate attacks did not ignore the Russian sailors.
However, the real, let's say, the highlight of all planned exercises in the Mediterranean, will be combat maneuvering off the Syrian coast. The inter-fleet grouping of Russian ships headed by the missile cruiser “Moscow” will work out operational-tactical actions in the immediate vicinity of Syria. Moreover, there is information that several Russian ships are scheduled to call at once to the logistics base of the Russian Navy in the port of Tartus (Syria).
It was the Russian-planned maneuvers of naval ships off the coast of Syria that entered Tartus became the object of incessant criticism from the West. A number of Western news agencies filed news about the upcoming exercises of Russian ships in the eastern Mediterranean as an attempt by Moscow to solve the Syrian issue by outside intervention by force.
The “progressive” press of the United States, Great Britain, and a number of Arab countries was full of headlines about Russian militarism and its attempts to put pressure on “the free people of Syria, who do not wish to see the dictator Assad at the head of their country.” At the same time, foreign publications were quick to say that Russia brings such an impressive grouping of its warships to Syria in order to evacuate Russian citizens from Syrian territory, after which it will certainly enter into a military operation against the so-called oppositionists.
Why are there Western publications ... We also have our own “soothsayers” in a number of media outlets that echo their foreign colleagues, saying that Moscow is worried that more and more new groups of servicemen of the Syrian regular army are switching to the Syrian “rebels” . Like, it was precisely this that gave Putin a reason (as without him) to immediately order a change in the situation in Syria purely in an anti-democratic direction.
For obvious reasons, when phrases like “bloody Assad’s regime” appear in media reports, “Putin is ready to support Assad” and “military invasion of Syria by Russia”, then especially impressionable readers (especially in the West) again begin to show anti-Russian sentiment. Now, if the exercises were carried out by the ships of the American fleets, it would be a different matter - just exercises and nothing more ... But as soon as it comes to Russia, I immediately think that “Putin’s clawed paw” and everything like that.
However, in fairness, it must be said that especially impressionable readers, who believe that true proponents of the democratic system are fighting with Assad in Syria, and not diversified militant groups, are even less in the West. People, despite ongoing information pressure, have recently managed to understand that not every military operation that is imposed by the NATO countries is one that can lead a certain country to democratic prosperity. The ongoing civil war in the country of the “victorious democracy” of Libya, as well as Egypt, where the new “democratic” president managed to rouse full power for themselves, are vivid examples of what military intervention and blind support for one of the parties from the outside leads to.
Obviously, many western politicians have now decided to use the factor of Russia's growing military power to amend their shaken image. Now, any military educational initiative of the Russian Federation outside its territorial and aquatic limits will be presented by certain foreign media as an attempt by Russia to solve its tasks by military means.
Of course, with a special desire, Moscow could use the formed naval grouping to "resolve the Syrian issue," but our country has enough bloody experience of participating in dubious foreign operations. Russia's task in conducting large-scale exercises in the eastern region of the Mediterranean Sea is not to invade the territory of this country and militarily support one of the parties to the armed conflict, but that the so-called world community suddenly had no illusions that There is only one country in the world that can promote its interests.
The negative experience of the Libyan “abstinence” on the part of Russia, obviously, will not be repeated, because today each of us can perfectly see what an attempt is being made to close our eyes to painful geopolitical issues. But Russia also does not intend to get involved in the Syrian prolonged conflict, risking the lives of its own citizens.
But the very fact of conducting naval exercises in the immediate vicinity of the territory of the country around which there are so many conversations today can obviously play to increase Russia's prestige in global geopolitical terms. When someone suddenly has a strong desire to solve the issue in Syria in the same way as it was resolved in Libya (the installation of the Patriot air defense system in Turkey is an example), then let these people remember the presence of another force capable of becoming an impressive counterweight. The very presence of Russian warships off the coast of Syria can cool even the hottest heads who recently believed in their infallibility and invulnerability.
Moreover, the Russian side is now well using the Western method of explaining the conduct of certain operations. In particular, the Ministry of Defense of Russia declares that the launch exercises of the ships of the Russian Navy are in no way connected with the events that take place in Syria. Like, pure coincidence ... This position is even more annoying to the West. So what? As they say, it was from whom to learn ...