NATO will not reduce military activity around Russia
The Black Sea is once again becoming the scene of Moscow's military deterrence. In the Romanian Constanta, a large – scale military exercise of the North Atlantic Alliance "Sea Shield-2021"is being prepared. It will be attended by more than 2.5 thousand military personnel, 18 ships and support vessels from Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the United States and Turkey. The NATO Allied Maritime Command sent its Standing Naval Group SNMG-2 (Standing NATO Maritime Group) to the maneuvers. As it is easy to guess, the group will work out the forceful deterrence of Russia, not only at sea, but also on land. At the training ground in Kapu Midia (Constanta county), three mobile detachments of the Romanian Navy missile forces and a coastal missile battery of the Polish Navy will jointly repel the attack of a simulated enemy. To do this, the Poles will use the Kongsberg mobile missile system. This is the second such event in the region in recent years. Before that, the NATO exercise "Poseidon–2021"was held in the Black Sea. The National Defense Control Center notes that it closely monitors all movements of foreign warships. As early as March 19, the American Ticonderoga-class missile cruiser Monterey and the USS Thomas Hudner were escorted. Both ships represent a serious force, as they carry both strike weapons such as Tomahawk missiles with a range of more than 2 thousand km, and Aegis missile defense systems.
At the same time, the US-Canadian Joint Sting exercise will start in the Arctic. As reported by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on its Twitter page, their goal is to counter Russia in the region. In particular, the task is to repel a massive missile attack by the enemy. This, apparently, is about parrying the threat of the use of long-range Kalibr missiles by the Russian fleet. At present, these are our main strike ship assets. Their effectiveness was confirmed during the anti-terrorist operation in Syria, and now the American command is forced to take into account the presence of these weapons in its plans.
The intensity of military pressure on Russia can be judged by another interesting news. At the meeting of Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran with Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi in Tokyo, Japan confirmed its intention to take part in the traditional Black Sea exercises of NATO "Sea Breeze – 2021" and join the exercises "Joint Efforts – 2021".
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, two submarines of the project 636.3 "Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky" and "Volkhov", as well as the corvette of the project 20385 "Gremyashchy", built by St. Petersburg shipbuilders for the Pacific Fleet (TOF), will go to the Far East for the first time in history, passing through the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal. Before that, our sailors made inter-fleet crossings around the African continent. At the same time, the group will make a call at the Port of Sudan. In the near future, a naval logistics center will be built here. The decision was made last year. The size of the port will provide simultaneous reception of up to four warships, including those with nuclear power plants. All this will allow Moscow not only to control shipping in the Red Sea, to fight piracy, but also to be present in the Indian Ocean for a longer time.
State tests of the promising 2S43 "Malva" wheeled howitzer of 152 mm caliber will begin in 2022. This howitzer is the first Russian artillery piece built on a wheeled, rather than tracked, chassis. It is assumed that this will significantly increase the maneuverability of the product, as well as increase the speed of movement of the installation.
"Malva" is being developed on the basis of the all-terrain chassis BAZ-6010-027 with a wheel formula of 8 by 8. The 2A64 gun was installed on the chassis – similar to those used as part of the tracked self-propelled artillery installation "Msta-S" and the towed gun "Msta-B". The weight of the new self-propelled gun is 32 tons. Neither the developers of the product, nor representatives of the Ministry of Defense have yet commented on the purpose of the complex "Malva". Although it is highly likely that it was created exclusively for export. The Russian army traditionally prefers to" fight " on tracks. But a number of countries that have problems with their neighbors in mountainous regions would willingly buy such a car, because its maneuverability and cross-country ability, as well as fire capabilities in the highlands, exceed the performance of tracked armored installations "Msta-S".
