"A detachment of the Northern Fleet consisting of the large anti-submarine ship Vice Admiral Kulakov, the medium sea tanker Akademik Pashin and the rescue tugboat Altai under the flag of the commander of the anti-submarine ships, Captain 1st rank Stanislav Varik, entered the Gulf of Guinea of the Atlantic Ocean," the press service of the SF reported on Wednesday, October 6.
It is known that one of the main tasks of this group will be to ensure the safety of civilian shipping and the fight against piracy. The North Sea people know well how difficult and risky this is. For example, the crew of the Kulakov repeatedly participated in anti-piracy raids. In general, the Northern Fleet in recent years has sent its sailors several times to the waters that the pirates liked. In addition to the Kulakov, the heavy nuclear missile cruiser Peter the Great and the large anti-submarine ships Admiral Chabanenko, Severomorsk and Admiral Levchenko, and other SF crews visited the Gulf of Aden. They have been guarding peaceful vessels from pirate raids for many months, and have conducted dozens of international caravans through dangerous waters.
Sometimes it was not possible without skirmishes with sea robbers. A few years ago, when pirates attacked the Ocean Diamond cargo ship and the United Emblem tanker, it was the North Sea sailors who saved the crews from forced imprisonment in pirate captivity, and the owners of the ships from humiliating ransom negotiations and multimillion-dollar costs.
The naval command then studied the combat operations of Russian ships in the Horn of Africa in detail. Based on them, the admirals prepared recommendations on how the crew should act in a given situation. Before long-distance hikes, teams now study this manual, as they say, from cover to cover.
This time, in order to back up the theory with practice, the sailors of the Kulakov BOD and support vessels did not waste time en route. "Along the route of the transition, marines from anti-terrorist units, which reinforced the crews of the ship and vessels, practiced boarding a conditional intruder vessel from water and from the air using high-speed boats and a Ka-27PS helicopter, and then conducted a training inspection operation," the press service of the Northern Fleet said.
Yuri Gavrilov
