Russian Kalibr-equipped Stary Oskol submarine enters Black Sea
The cruise missile-equipped “Stary Oskol” submarine from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has set out into the Black Sea in order to carry out a training exercise, the Russian media reports, citing the fleet’s headquarters.
“The submarine crew will rehearse various exercises with maritime aircraft and anti-submarine ships from the Black Sea Fleet,” the report states.
Previously the personnel practiced steering the submarine, and developed an algorithm for diving to various depths, from periscope depth to operational depth, using both drift and power, the fleet reported.
The diesel-electric submarine Stary Oskol is the third in a series of six submarines built for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at the Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg. After completing testing in summer 2016, it was transferred from Polyarny in Russia’s Murmansk province to annexed Sevastopol. Submarines in this series have used Kalibr missiles to attack targets in Syria from the Mediterranean Sea.
Since its annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has been holding regular military exercises on the peninsula. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces considers all Russian military activity in Crimea illegal.
A UN General Assembly resolution adopted on 17 December 2018 in connection with the militarization of Crimea and the Black and Azov seas calls on Russia to withdraw its forces from the occupied peninsula and condemns its growing military presence in the seas.