Military historian Dmitry Boltenkov — about which countries were visited by Russian warships and which exercises were conducted by the Navy in 2024
In the past 2024, ships and vessels of the Russian Navy made over 50 long-range voyages. In particular, they visited ports in the countries of the Global South, Cuba, India, Venezuela, China, the Middle East, and in some for the first time in the recent history of Russia.
The sea makes a man a sailor, or rather, sea voyages. You can conduct exercises between your forces, but it's better when the sparring partner is a foreign one. Then you can learn something new, look at the tactics and techniques of the "enemy". However, after the events of 2014, all kinds of training with now unfriendly countries were stopped.
Voyages of warships to different countries also provide an opportunity for local residents to get to know the citizens of the Russian Federation. Few Russian tourists have ever visited a country like Namibia or Equatorial Guinea. Accordingly, Russians are like people from another planet to the locals. Therefore, a visit by a Russian warship to such remote territories leads to an increase in the interest of the local population in Russia and the values it preaches.
In this regard, the Navy has strengthened its cooperation with the countries of the Global South. The naval forces of these countries should not be considered backward. They, and especially China, are very actively updating their fleet. For example, the Tushil frigate, built in Kaliningrad, recently joined the Indian Navy. And cooperation will allow us to show potential partners our naval equipment for its possible purchase in the future.
Each country has its own purpose in the exercises. In particular, China has its own headache in the form of Taiwan, which could lead to a full-scale conflict with overseas countries.
At the same time, in recent years, the Russian Navy has been saturated with new and retired ships of the first and second ranks. As a result, the number of trips has increased dramatically.
The main event of the past 2024 was the strategic exercises Ocean-2024. This is the largest naval exercise since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The forces of the Baltic, Northern and Pacific Fleets, the Caspian Flotilla and the permanent naval unit in the Mediterranean Sea took part in them.
The maneuvers took place from September 10 to September 16, 2024. By and large, almost all ships and vessels capable of going to sea took part in them, with the exception of the forces of the Black Sea Fleet, which are currently solving their defense tasks. For the first time, the Naval Forces of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA Navy) took part in such large-scale exercises.
A number of actions of the Russian Navy were synchronized with the exercises, in particular, the 13th Arctic campaign of the Northern Fleet (SF). At the same time, during the Ocean-2024 exercises, the SF played for the "enemy". At the same time, two new nuclear—powered submarines, the Emperor Alexander III and the Krasnoyarsk, were transferred to Kamchatka. But most importantly, during the exercises, a promising form of use of the Navy was worked out - an independent operation in the ocean area. That is, in fact, they were working out what the Russian Navy would do in the event of a full-scale conflict with a group of unfriendly countries.
The Pacific Fleet currently has ten large ships of the first and second ranks, of which the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov has been upgraded, and five corvettes have been built from scratch. It is not surprising that the Pacific Fleet accounts for most of the long-distance voyages.
So, in 2024, the cruiser Varyag and the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov made a seven-month trip from January 22 to August 23, passing from Vladivostok to the Mediterranean Sea and back. At the same time, they took part in a number of exercises and made port calls in different countries. For example, Marshal Shaposhnikov visited the port of Massawa in Eritrea. This was the first visit by a Russian warship since the separation of Eritrea from Ethiopia. The ships also entered the ports of Qatar, Oman, Sri Lanka, Iran and several other countries.
Another interesting event was the cruise from October 5 to December 13, 2024 of three corvettes — "Loud", "Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov" and "Sharp" — from Vladivostok to the Indian Ocean with calls at ports in Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand and China. During this campaign, a landmark event took place — the first ever Russian-Indonesian naval exercises Orruda-2024. It is noteworthy that it was the USSR that transferred a number of its ships to create the Indonesian Navy back in the 1960s.
The ships of the Northern and Baltic Fleets also made a number of significant voyages. So, on March 24, 2024, the longest cruise of a ship in the modern history of the Russian Navy ended: the frigate Admiral Kasatonov sailed for 424 days. And on November 1, the frigate Admiral Golovko left for her first long-range cruise. In the Mediterranean, the ship became part of the permanent naval unit in the region. Where, on December 1-3, 2024, joint missile firings, including launches of Zircon hypersonic missiles, were conducted jointly with the Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov frigate, the Novorossiysk submarine and the Bastion coastal missile system. MiG-31I aircraft with the Dagger hypersonic system also took part in the maneuvers. Such exercises can be a prototype for attacking decision-making centers and military bases on the territory of unfriendly countries.
A few days after that, the frigate Gorshkov left the Mediterranean and headed for Severomorsk. On December 27, his campaign ended, which was launched on May 17, 2024. During this trip, among other things, he visited Havana with the nuclear submarine Kazan from June 12 to 17, 2024. The visit of our nuclear submarine to a foreign port was the first since 2004, when France was visited by the nuclear submarine "Boar".
Cuba has become a popular destination for visiting our ships in 2024. In addition to the Gorshkov and Kazan, the Baltic ships — the patrol ship Intrepid and the Smolny training ship — entered Havana from July 27 to July 30. Then the Intrepid crossed the Atlantic, passed the Mediterranean and Red Seas and bypassed Africa, after which it returned to its home port.
Smolny had a slightly different route. In particular, the training ship visited Cape Town (South Africa), Walvis Bay in Namibia, Angolan Luanda, Doualu in Cameroon and Cotonou in Benin.
Of course, thanks to the media, it is better known about significant events such as joint military exercises or long-range campaigns. And the hard daily work of solving combat service tasks remains in the shadows.
For example, in May 2024, the naval strike group of the Baltic Fleet, consisting of the small missile ships Grad and Sovetsk, returned from combat service. The group of small rocket and artillery ships of the BF regularly practices the preparation and conduct of launches against targets and ships of unfriendly countries. We can recall the trips of the corvettes of the same Baltic Fleet to escort transports with important cargoes.
This is an inconspicuous but very important job, which will only get bigger in the face of growing international tensions. Without a doubt, the Russian Navy expects no less intense combat training in 2025, including new long-range campaigns.
The author is a military historian
The editorial board's position may not coincide with the author's opinion.
