During the sudden check of combat readiness of troops of the southern, Central and Western military districts of the locations came ships and support vessels of the black sea fleet, reports the defense Ministry.
Participating in the exercise, the ships began the transitions in areas of concentration in the Black sea.
“The black sea fleet to perform tasks for introductory sudden check in the composition of naval strike groups (GAC), anti-submarine ship strike group (CPWG), mine countermeasure groups (MTG) and troops landing ships (Deso), the sea came over 15 combat vehicles”, — stated in the message Department.
According to the Ministry of defence, the sea came the frigate “Admiral Grigorovich” missile ship “Samum” and “Mirage”, patrol ship “Smetliviy”, small antisubmarine ships “Aleksandrovac” and “Kasimov”, missile boats, mine-sweeping ships, large landing ship “Nikolai phylchenkov”, “Azov”, “Yamal”, “Caesar Kunikov”, “Saratov”.
In addition, the locations in Astrakhan and Kaspiysk in the sea also came the court of the Caspian flotilla. In areas of concentration came more than 10 boats and support vessels, including new small missile ships “Grad svijazhsk”, “Velikiy Ustyug”, “Uglich”, artillery boat RAID and base minesweepers, ships comprehensive search-and-rescue support.
Sudden check of combat readiness of the Russian Armed forces was announced on the morning of 25 August. The test will be conducted from 25 to 31 August and will affect southern, Western and Central military districts and the Northern fleet, FSI and airborne. Readiness test is conducted in anticipation of large-scale exercises “Caucasus-2016”, which is scheduled for September. According to the President of Academy of geopolitical problems Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, the inspection of the combat readiness of the Russian armed forces became the largest exercises held in Russia for 1.5 years.
Pentagon spokesman Michel Baldanza said that the US is concerned about the sudden check of combat readiness of the Russian Armed forces because of their proximity to Ukraine and monitoring the situation closely. “We remain deeply concerned by the intensifying violence in Eastern Ukraine and the proximity of these forces [armed forces] to Ukraine, given the direct Russian involvement in the conflict in the Donbass,” — said Baldanza.
