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Analysis : Russian Navy shows muscles on its Navy Day

About 200 warships and vessels of the Northern, Pacific, Baltic and Black Sea Fleets and the Caspian Flotilla took part in the naval parades on the occasion of Navy Day on July 31.
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President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, in St Petersburg. (Picture source: Russian presidency)

The most spectacular parade was held in St. Petersburg. It ran between the Annunciation and Trinity Bridges on the Neva River and in the fairways of the Kronstadt roadstead and involved 36 ships and boats, four submarines, seven sailing vessels, 42 aircraft, and also over 3,500 troops.

Yasen-class submarines

This year, the most secret Project 885 nuclear-powered submarine Severodvinsk took part in the Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg. Submarines of the type are carriers of long-range Kalibr and Onyx antiship missiles, as well as Tsirkon hypersonic missiles in future.

On October 4, 2021, the Severodvinsk successfully test-launched new Tsirkon missiles from the surface and underwater positions in the White Sea. It is revealing that the submarine sailed from the Northern Fleet to the Baltic Fleet in its surface position.

In 2025, the Navy will receive the Project 885M submarine Perm that will be the first organic carrier of Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missiles.

The Sevmash Shipyard (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) is currently building six Project 885M nuclear-powered submarines. The lead submarines of projects 885 and 885M, the Severodvinsk and the Kazan, are already operational with the Russian Navy.

The first serial Project 885M submarine Novosibirsk was handed over to the Navy in December 2021 and is being prepared to sail to its permanent deployment base in the Pacific Fleet.

The Krasnoyarsk is undergoing shipbuilders sea trials. It went to sea for the first time at the end of June. The submarines Arkhangelsk, Ulyanovsk, Voronezh and Vladivostok are at various construction stages at the Sevmash Shipyard.

Shchyuka-class submarine

The Project 971 Shchyuka-class submarine Vepr has taken part in the parade for the second time.

The Project 971 submarines are among the quietest subs of the Russian Navy. They operate constantly at sea on the most distant lines of defense. In 1987, Shchyuka-class subs filmed the infrastructure of one of the most secret US naval bases on the eastern coast of the country with the use of periscopes.

In 1996, during an antisubmarine warfare exercise of the NATO naval forces near the Hebrides, a Russian nuclear-powered submarine surfaced in the very center of the formation of NATO ships.

The Russian sub sent an SOS signal because of a sailor who was diagnosed with appendicitis. It was risky to operate him onboard the submarine and the commander made an unprecedented decision to surface and ask potential opponents for help. A British helicopter took the sailor to hospital. After that, the Russian submarine dived again and sailed away.

In the summer of 1996, the USS Tennessee Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine discovered that it was being escorted by a Shchyuka-class sub near the US territorial waters.

Contacts with Russian submarines are not new for American submariners, but the discovery that the enemy got so close to American shores came as a surprise to them.

In 2012, two Project 971 submarines were detected in a 200-mile zone near the east coast of Canada and the United States. While pursuing them, the Canadian and American servicemen quickly lost their track, then-Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said.

Later, the Washington Free Beacon with reference to the Navy stated that the Russian servicemen had been at least two months off the coast of the United States, posing a real threat not only to warships, but also to coastal facilities, and no one could neutralize them.

In 2015, there was information that supposedly two Shchyuka-class submarines near the British Isles forced the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier to retreat to one of the bases of the Royal Navy.

The British press wrote that the call was not scheduled. During their service, the Project 971 submarines have repeatedly demonstrated their superiority over subs of much more modern projects, such as the US Virginia and Seawolf.

Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov said that next year the Navy would receive the first upgraded Project 971 submarine Tigr. Like the Project 885 submarine, it will carry Kalibr cruise missiles.

A TASS source said that the sub would continue to carry 40 missiles and torpedoes, but the weapons suite would also get Kalibr-PL missiles with a flight range is up to 2,500 km (1,553 mi). In future, all the Project 971 submarines, the Leopard, Vepr, Pantera, Gepard and Volk, will become carriers of this missile system.

These submarines will significantly expand Russia’s ability to ensure its own security in long-distance sea lanes.

Overall, five Project 971 submarines, including two of them operational with the Pacific Fleet, are currently being repaired and upgraded at USC enterprises. It was reported that the submarine Leopard would re-enter service in 2021, the Tigr in 2022, the Volk in 2023.

Thus, virtually the entire grouping of these submarines will be operational again in 2023. Until the construction of Project 885 Yasen-class submarines is completed, the Project 971 submarines will service on the high seas.

Surface ships

The parade formation also involved the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the corvettes Soobrazitelny, Stoiky, Boiky and Mercury, the patrol ship Yaroslav Mudry, the minesweeper Alexander Obukhov, the missile boats Dimitrovgrad and Chuvashia, the large amphibious assault ship Ivan Gren, and Mangust-class special boats.

Like the Project 885 submarine, the Project 22350 frigate Admiral Gorshkov carries Tsirkon hypersonic missiles. The ship was used to perform the first test-launches of the Tsirkon missile.

The Tsirkon hypersonic missile was developed and is produced by the Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (NPO Mashinostroeniya, part of the Tactical Missiles Corporation) in Reutov in the Moscow Region.

On February 20, 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his state-of-the-nation address that the Tsirkon hypersonic missile could develop a speed of Mach 9 and had a range of over 1,000 km (621 mi).

On August 24, 2021, a contract was signed at the Army 2021 international military and technical forum on the delivery of Tsirkon hypersonic missiles to the Russian Defense Ministry. On December 24, 2021, Putin said that a Tsirkon salvo had been test fired “successfully and faultlessly.”

It was reported in the fall of 2021 that Russia began the first tests of the Tsirkon hypersonic missile from an underwater carrier, the nuclear-powered submarine Severodvinsk.

According to TASS data, the missile will be made operational and become an organic weapon of the Navy in September 2022. One thing is important. The Tsirkon can be mounted on all ships that carry a versatile 3S-14 launcher.

In this case, the talk can be about the Projects 20380/20385 corvettes Soobrazitelny, Stoiky, Boiky and Mercury. If we look at the issue as a whole, then the Russian Navy will be the only one in the world that will have a group of ships capable of massively using hypersonic weapons.