Weekdays "Varyag"
For several days, training sessions continued on the flagship of the Pacific fleet. Having left for the assigned area of Peter the Great Bay, the guards missile cruiser Varyag fully worked out the elements of the second course task, rattling artillery of all calibres over the sea.28 JULY - DAY OF NAVY
Of course, the crew knew about the upcoming delivery of K-2 after parking at the shipyard. And I did many exercises on the shore more than once, entering conditional data into one or another equipment, simulating a raid aviation either a submarine attack. However, the training alarm, which threw hundreds of sailors from their huts and cabins at the most inopportune time (4 a.m.!), Still seemed sudden. While the author of these lines refreshed his face with cold water from the washbasin to completely shake off his sleep and climb the bridge, hundreds of pairs of naval boots already thundered along the internal corridors and ramps - the personnel took the usual places at the military posts and was ready to respond to any commands from the ship's commander Guard Captain 1st Rank Alexander Potapov. However, it was only the first crew readiness check. And a few more weary hours of waiting passed before the cruiser gave up the moorings, leaving the Golden Horn Bay under the cover of thick fog.
The following "introductory" senior commanders (and the temporary acting commander of the Primorye flotilla of heterogeneous forces was Rear-Admiral Sergei Myasoedov and officers from the compound, merger and fleet headquarters. - Note. Author) did not keep themselves waiting.
- Mine danger!
And the cruiser commander decides to use sea-sweepers under the conditions of a mine threat. They immediately debug communication, and now somewhere in front, at a distance of 17 cable, at a speed of 18 nodes, four support ships help the Varyag force a dangerous section, bringing it to the area of firing positions.
“This exercise is characterized by a plan for building up actions,” the captain of 1 rank Sergey Sinko, the chief of the combat training of the flotilla, tells me. - That is, we introduce the ship commander into the situation, gradually complicating it. At the moment, apart from the mine threat, there is a natural complication of the training - the presence of thick fog. A commander needs to keep a place in the ranks of the minesweepers, to solve the problem of ensuring the safety of navigation. At the same time, in a real situation there may be an air raid by the enemy, so now a new introductory will follow. It means that with the means of anti-aircraft defense, the Varanzhans must cover not only themselves, but also a group of minesweepers. Further, the planned complication is that the minesweepers will actually detect and expend floating mines. In this case, the cruiser will have to make a timely maneuver and then destroy dangerous objects. It is with such introductory tasks that we force the ship commander to think creatively, if necessary, help him to make the best decision. And, of course, we evaluate the actions of the entire crew as a single organism. After all, the staff is constantly changing, you need to develop practical skills, bringing them to automatism.
And indeed, a little later, guard captain 1 of rank, Potapov gave the command to the first maneuver, moving the steering wheel to the right for a course of 190 degrees. At zero visibility, the ship made its way into the specified area of Peter the Great Bay only by instruments, in the radio silence mode ...“It is clear that the flagship of the Pacific Fleet is on everyone's notice, and there is always high demand from it,” the chief of the flotilla combat training added to our short conversation. “But in reality we are paying close attention to all the ships of the group.” Therefore, we are more often at sea than at headquarters. We accept coursework tasks, transfer experience, provide methodological assistance to ship officers, among whom there are quite a few young commanders. The element of learning is always present. For example, I appreciate the ability of a ship commander to make decisions in different tactical situations for each new episode. And such exercises, of course, increase the combat readiness of our crews.
- Air target, 27 range of kilometers! - the report of the watch officer to the commander was heard at that moment.
- I accompany the Osa anti-aircraft missile system! - sounded after.
A few seconds - and according to the decision of the commander, the detected conditional target was struck from the AK-130 artillery installation.
- Air target, 75 range!
This time, the aircraft was not imitated: somewhere behind the clouds at a sufficiently remote distance, the ship’s experts discovered the real target, which was designated by IL-38 under the command of Major Nikolai Slusarev from the coastal air base. The decision of the commander - with the arrival in the affected area aircraft "destroy" the main artillery complex. And for the purpose of air defense, the sailors had already carried the means of diverting the aircraft’s radar to false directions, the inflatable corner reflectors, to the helicopter landing site. At the same time, the technician of the RHB protection service, foreman of the 2-th article, Igor Naybauer and the senior chemist, the senior sailor Viktor Khvostov, were preparing to drop into the sea a sea smoke bomb made in the form of an impressive metal barrel directly from the stern. The fog has dissipated, it was thus required to ensure the disguise of the ship.- Smoke under the AK-130 turret! - the next introductory for the crew. And then the team sounds reconnaissance, look around the compartments, include conditional irrigation.
And if it was not possible to turn on the irrigation system (since the power supply in the compartment disappeared), what are the actions of the patrol of the missile-artillery warhead? Will the skills and resourcefulness of the personnel be enough to get out of a difficult situation? And here, one after another, new introductory sounds: “Ignition of the pumping station in the turret section ... The steering wheel is jammed ... On the left - a low-flying aircraft target heading to the ship, to receive target indication for AK-130 ... A hole from an air bomb in the area of the machinery refrigeration unit ..." That is and in such a complicated situation, various factors need to continue to fight the enemy, which attacks both from the air, and from the sea, and from somewhere undersea.And there were dozens of similar fragments in those four days. Each K-2 theme immediately included in the combat work a significant part of the crew and officers of the fleet headquarters. For example, “Shooting anti-aircraft missiles at sea targets” pursued training objectives to check the ship’s readiness for rocket weapons in conditions as close as possible to the combat, to improve tactical techniques and methods of its use, to clarify the combat capabilities and performance characteristics of this type of weapon. At first, the rocket engineers commanded by the captain-lieutenant guard Sergei Aksyonov fired conditionally at the strike group of enemy ships, which were designated at a distance of more than ten kilometers by two missile boats. After a successful training on the waves of the sea, a real target appeared - a shield floating on metal barrels made by the hands of ship masters. On a small-sized target, they were beaten both from long distances and from near, using a self-defense complex. At the same time, the ship changed courses in order to increase the number of anti-aircraft weapons for destruction and to provide ease of shooting.
- well! - reported to the command about the hit of shells in the shield in a radius of four meters into the area around him already during the first sighting shots flagship missile captain 3 rank Alex Trunov.Here, in particular, it is appropriate to say about the foreman of the anti-aircraft artillery team of the foreman of the 2 article of contract service Viktor Khristolyubov, in whose hands a pair of six-barreled AK-30 cannon AK-630 guns made in the far from Primorye town (the city that defends “Varyag”) - Approx. Aut.) Showed its incredible rate of fire and power. It is not by chance that Vasily Gryazev, a leading engineer at the instrument-making design bureau of the weapons factory, once called her a battle queen. The foreman served under the contract for about seven years on a large anti-submarine ship Admiral Vinogradov, and was seconded here for business reasons. His accurate shooting was immediately noted by senior officers.
During the exercise, there was also an unforeseen "misfire" associated with a change in the situation outside the ship. When an artillery firing was carried out to suppress an invisible coastal target, it was soon curtailed, because from a Mi-8 helicopter under the command of captain Roman Pukhov, corrective fire, they reported to the ship about the unexpected appearance of people on the island, possibly fishermen, who landed there from a boat. It took time to show off the “guests” from the weapons use area. But the next volleys from the bow gun proved to be more productive. According to the correction post, there is a goal covering!
By the way, for the first time in the Pacific Fleet at this exit of the ships, an experiment was conducted to monitor the results of the artillery firing at the coastal target from an unmanned aircraft. It was launched from the cruiser. "Drone" went to a given area, stood in a circle over the island and using a video camera in real time gave the sailors the necessary information. In the future, when such equipment arrives on ships on a massive scale, it will be actively used to adjust the fire.
The special forces newly created on the flotilla are gaining more and more experience. This time, he was attracted to the Vazhansky working on a counter-sabotage task while the ship was stationed on an unprotected raid. Time “saboteurs” chose, naturally, the most inconvenient from the point of view of keeping the ship's watch - from three to half past five in the night, when the human body weakens under the weight of lack of sleep. And divers played a combat episode that requires increased attention, concentration, concentration of will and effort. They appeared unexpectedly from the foggy darkness, on special speedboats. And we must pay tribute to the crew of "Varyag" - he did not oversleep this attack, bristling with fire from their sides. As a result, his readiness to repel sabotage and reconnaissance groups was actually tested.
We should also mention separately the emergency party led by the commander of the group of automatics and telemechanics of the guard, senior lieutenant Andrey Demyanov, who was constantly in readiness during the execution of the K-2 elements. In its composition and the main boatswain senior midshipman Mikhail Semenov, and officers, sailors of contract service. They reacted to any introductory task, be it a conditional ignition of a commander's boat or a room inside the ship, oil leaks in the steering gear compartment, or the appearance of outboard water in the cruiser's nose. In the latter case, it was necessary to arm the divers quickly, so that they brought a plaster to the damaged part of the hull and stopped the water.“The struggle for the survivability of the ship is our main concern,” says Senior Lieutenant Demyanov to the guards, “and for this you need to be fully prepared. Therefore, we train constantly when we stand at the shore, at every exit to the sea. Here, servicemen of various specialties, and not only from an electromechanical warhead, know the energy compartments well. Stand out in the party and komendory, and experts of radio engineering services. There is also a chemist who, if necessary, reloads cartridges in insulating gas masks, controls the time a person is in a smoky room. I myself, as a senior instructor in light diving training, deal with divers; they also have enough work in marine conditions.
His assessment of the implementation of the second course task was given by Rear Admiral Sergei Myasoedov.
- The commander of the missile-artillery warhead knows his job, on the whole, the personnel of the air defense calculations showed good preparation, which enabled them to timely detect all air targets, accompany them and destroy them. Coordination showed crew when using anti-submarine weapons. Under the conditions of a really changing situation, the ship was actually attacked by groups of underwater saboteurs from various directions. As a result of competent actions and implementation of the commander’s decision on defense, the attacking forces were also detected and neutralized on time. For this purpose, imitating means of destruction were used from the ship; a high-speed boat was lowered to intercept. In general, other major episodes of the exercise were normal, including actions to combat the survivability of the ship in various types of damage. At the same time, safety precautions were observed everywhere, and the TB controllers recorded errors at each site if someone made them. The officers of the headquarters of the division and the flotilla helped most competently to solve this or that task. Something still needs to be improved, such as the implementation of standards for the complex use of all types of weapons in a naval battle, - continued Sergey Nikolayevich. - Among the shortcomings is the incompletely worked out relationship with the helicopter-spotters when shooting at an invisible coastal target. We will devote all this to the next exits to the sea. Moreover, soon “Varyag” will have to participate in new exercises, a long hike to the shores of Australia.
We add that the words of the acting commander of the Primorsk flotilla of heterogeneous forces became reality in a few days. Guards missile cruiser organically continued military training during the Russian-Chinese "Sea interaction-2013", and a little later - as part of a sudden inspection of the troops of the Eastern Military District, including the forces of the Pacific Fleet, held in the second decade of July. Now he is maneuvering again in the Far Eastern seas, as part of ship groups, performing tasks, honing naval tactics and the training of personnel.
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