Peskov called the arrival of Russian warships in Cuba a normal practice
The Kazan submarine and the Admiral Gorshkov frigate of the Russian Navy arrived in Cuba after completing exercises in the Atlantic. They will stay in Havana for five days. The American CNN channel considered the visit a "demonstration of military force" of the Russian Federation just 145 km from Florida, and the Kremlin called it a normal practice. What Russian ships are doing near the Caribbean Islands and why Russia should conduct naval exercises so far away - in the material of the military observer "Gazeta.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
A detachment of ships of the Russian Northern Fleet has completed exercises on the use of high-precision missile weapons in the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Cuba, where it will be on an official visit from June 12 to 17. The frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the nuclear submarine Kazan, the tanker Akademik Pashin and the ocean rescue tug Nikolai Chiker docked in Havana.
After entering the harbor in Cuba, Admiral Gorshkov, the first in a convoy of four ships, fired a 21-gun salute, to which the Cubans responded with a cannon salvo from an 18th-century colonial fort built by the Spaniards to guard the port.
What kind of ships?
The multipurpose nuclear submarine Kazan (project 885M Yasen-M) is equipped with 10 torpedo tubes of 533 mm caliber, located at an angle of the submarine sideways. In addition, the ship has eight vertical missile silos, each of which can accommodate cruise missiles 3M55 "Onyx", 3M22 "Zircon" or 3M14 "Caliber-PL" (the loading option depends on the assigned combat mission).
The American equivalent of the Yasen-M submarine is a Virginia-class multipurpose submarine. The US Navy currently has 25 boats of this type in service, their number is planned to increase to 66. The Russian Navy has five Yasen-M submarines.
Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov is a Russian multipurpose frigate of Project 22350 (ship of the 1st rank) with guided missile weapons of the far sea and ocean zone. The ship is part of the 43rd Division of missile ships of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy. This is a relatively small ship in terms of displacement: 4,500 tons is standard, 5,400 tons is full.
Frigate Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov in Havana, Cuba, 2019
Image source: Ramon Espinosa/AP
Admiral Gorshkov is equipped with 16 vertical launch devices designed to launch 3M54 Kalibr-NK sea-based cruise missiles, 3M55 Onyx and 3M22 Zircon anti-ship missiles.
An analogue of the Gorshkov can partly be considered a promising US Navy frigate of the Constellation type, previously it was called FFG(X). Constellation is slightly larger than the Russian frigate, its displacement reaches 6,700 tons. The ship has 32 cells for launching missiles such as ESSM Block 2 (Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile), SM-6, SM-2MR Block 3C, RAM (21 cells). These frigates are still being built for the US Navy. The first of them received the number FFG-62, on August 31, 2022, the first steel cutting took place for it. It is planned to build these frigates at a rate of two hulls per year, the United States plans to build 20 ships in total.
Standard practice?
The American TV channel CNN considered the five-day visit of Russian ships to the Caribbean island a "demonstration of military force" of the Russian Federation just 90 miles (145 km) from Florida amid rising tensions between the United States and Russia over the situation in Ukraine.
At the same time, the American TV channel notes that Russian transit to the region is taking place at a particularly tense moment in relations between Washington and Moscow - a few weeks after American President Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to launch a direct strike on Russian territory using weapons provided by the United States.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the visit of Russian warships to Cuba, called this a normal practice and noted that he saw no reason for concern on the part of the United States.
"Military exercises are a normal practice in various regions of the world - this is also a normal practice for states, especially for such a large maritime power as the Russian Federation. And making such visits is also a common practice," he said.
Cuba last week also called ship visits standard practice for naval units of countries friendly to Havana, assuring that they do not pose a threat to the region.
"Visits by naval units from other countries are a historical practice of the revolutionary government with states that maintain relations of friendship and cooperation," the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The Ministry of the Armed Forces of the country stressed that none of the Russian ships are equipped with nuclear weapons.
According to CNN, the US military deployed its ships and aircraft to monitor Russian military exercises in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, and also monitored Russian ships that crossed the Atlantic on their way to Cuba in recent days. Representatives of the Pentagon and the State Department also stressed that Russia's actions are routine and do not pose a threat to the United States, and noted that Cuba received Russian ships annually from 2013 to 2020.
Are such exercises necessary?
It is known that the Russian heterogeneous tactical group of four vessels, including support vessels, practiced the use of high-precision missile weapons in the Atlantic.
The question arises: is it necessary to hold such events when almost all the forces of the country are involved in a special military operation? However, if Russia positions itself as a great power, it means that it has interests in any region of the globe and the oceans, and they can be ensured only if there is a large and combat-ready ocean fleet with all the necessary types of forces in its combat composition.
Currently, such theses can be considered overly ambitious and do not fully correspond to the general military-political moment. It would seem that what kind of aircraft carriers are there, when fierce battles have been going on for Hours of Yar or Kleshcheyevka for months.
But in this regard, it is necessary to think for many decades. For example, Russia intends to "cut through" a transport corridor to the Atlantic, bypassing Europe, through the Sahel region from the east coast of Africa to the shores of the Atlantic. Four Sahel states - Chad, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso - have already established regimes friendly to Russia during the coups of recent years. That is, Moscow may have its own way from the European part of the country to South America. The volume of potential markets in this scenario can reach several billion people.
But all this at this stage can only be considered as a promising goal. The nearest task, which has already been practically started, is the North-South transport corridor.
In both cases, the importance of the Navy, long-range and military transport aviation, which will ensure the safety of the functioning of both streams, will increase many times. It will be necessary to ensure the dominance of the domestic fleet in the Arabian Sea (the North-South corridor), and in the South Atlantic (the corridor through the Sahel), and off the east coast of Africa.
So the exercise of a detachment of Russian Navy warships in the Atlantic against the background of the upcoming implementation of such ambitious tasks looks quite logical. We start with two combat units, but in the historically foreseeable future we will easily reach 200.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok
