Kuznetsov en route to Med
 

The Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and a flotilla of hangers on left the Northern Fleet's base in Severomorsk last Wednesday, deploying to the Med, anybody seen it yet? Typhoon/Su-33 pics anyone?

Or will everybody be in the SWAPs looking for a pair of old queens?:)

Ah, that would mean continuous Survops until they passed down into the French AOA. The first sorties coordinated with a take-over with the RNoAF and possibly a detachment to Andoya and a split with the P3Cs from Kef as they transit the gap. Once west of Ireland surveillance chopped to St Mawgan with may be 2-3 jets transfered to SM to bolster 42.

Say 15-20 sorties - 9 aircraft for so. Good flying and quite busy.

Now how many MRA are we getting? How many MR2 have we got at ISK?

- only if the Kuz sails up the Moray Firth, and even then we could be pushing it.

Wonder if the new German P3 sqn will be deployed forward to ISK/SM?? (or even Shannon???)

PN said
Yes it would...in 1990

I take it you were joking in the past tense??(15 years past??)

There certainly isnt a P3 presence at Kef, and I think Andoya is out too.
As for 42, I was on the parade when it shut in '92.

I guess this gives the OCU a chance to win the next station photo comp though.

CS

In the near words of OC the A-Team; don't you just love it when no plans come together.

Brilliant , as always like the cold war time near xmas the ops flying starts and the people can forget xmas holidays :*

I think the russians still hate us for putting Dnipro out of the UEFA cup , wankers !!!

Kuz has not been to see in an operational state for some time, she's bearly worth the effort. She'll be in the Med before we crack up foe Christmas.

How about the Andrew then?

One of those slim, grey messengers of Cockers Ps? Have we still got one?

Suppose we could borrow the Catalina from Duxford, that, or wait till it pitches up off Lady's Mile and 84 can give it a good looking at.:(

Still live and kicking I'm afraid. Same number of P-3 as before.

Apart from other things, such as no budget (see, they got NATO-Standard at last), her Jet Blast Deflectors (JBDs) that pop up behind the jets so they can use 'burner to launch, were defective.

One of them blew apart when the pop-down chocks used as hold backs failed. The Su-33 tovarich didn't want to de-select burner in case the hold backs operated as he would have trundled off the end. So he kept full burner in, the JBD's internal water cooling pipes blew and the 'burners then sprayed the flight deck with hot FOD. Which drew FlyCo's attention to his plight with the pop-chocks.

And the crap JBDs.

You can put money on that he sorties the Naval Air regiments anyway, as they've allready had a practise. Bears, Blinders and Blackjacks for Xmas Day, lovely.:hmm:
(Blinders? I must be getting old - Backfires. Sorry.)

M609, I wasn't clear. I meant a Nimrod landaway in Andoya having covered or to cover the NW.

Is there time to get the SM gate guardian up to Bodo?

Hey old Navigator type person - don't worry, there are some of us on here that get your irony! V surprised that spider didn't!

Andoya - great place - at least one lady posted from there to ISK on marriage! And often quite lucrative too, as the locals appreciated a wee drop of Speyside's finest :O

Ref Kuz and 'the hangers on', I'm sure for the benefit of the greenies, the Mighty Hunter's carbon footprint will be gratifyingly small, although the RN escort will probably scare them to death :eek:

Oh, and Pontius, stop letting those wannabe's on OASC thread beat you up - most of them can't even read :ugh:

Cap'n Dayglo of the Norhern Fleet says the Noggies are on to them:

MOSCOW. Dec 8 (Interfax) - A naval attack group led by the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier has performed a number of duties during a tactical exercise, Russian Navy spokesman Cap. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.

"A naval attack group including the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the Admiral Levchenko and Admiral Chabanenko anti-submarine ships, and the Sergei Osipov and Nikolai Chiker support ships successfully performed its duties on rebuffing air strikes and ensuring anti-submarine defense during a marine cruise as part of a tactical exercise," Dygalo told Interfax on Saturday.

"Ka-27 helicopters took off from the aircraft carrier" during the exercise, Dygalo said.

"The cruise of the Northern Fleet naval attack group has drawn special attention from the intelligence services and naval forces of the NATO states," he said.

"At 1:40 p.m. Moscow time on December 7, an Orion patrol aircraft of the Norwegian Air Force flew over the naval attack group. A Nordkapp- class frigate of the Norwegian coastguard forces has been escorting the attack group and monitoring its maneuvers over the past two days," Dygalo said.

"The Norwegian ship started escorting and monitoring the Russian warships at about 8:00 p.m. on December 6, and it is currently moving parallel to it 40-50 cable lengths away," he said.

The Russian ships are continuing their planned journey toward the Northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Two support ships, the Lena and the Kola, left the Baltiisk port, the main base of the Russian Baltic Fleet, on December 7 and will soon join the Northern Fleet attack group.

Anyone know when they will get to the Med and which ports they will call at ?

Global Research, 27 July 2006:

The decision announced in early June to set up a Russian military base in Syria on the Eastern Mediterranean bears a direct relationship to the war on Lebanon and Israeli ambitions to control militarily the entire Eastern mediterranean coastline.

Russia has begun works in the Syrian port of Tartus seeking to built a full-scale naval base for the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, currently based in Ukraine’s Sevastopol, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources in the Defense Ministry and the General Staff of the Russian Navy.

The paper noted that this is the first time Russia is setting up a military base outside the CIS since the fall of the USSR and that the base will allow Moscow to pursue its own line in the Middle East.

Russia has also started work in the port of Latakia in Syria, the newspaper said. The base in Tartus and the new mooring in Latakia will be able to serve the needs of the Black Sea Fleet and possibly the North Sea Fleet as well.

Travelling far ?
 

Not too far from the Adriatic either....

:hmm:

The Carrier group will be visiting 16 ports in 11 countries apparently...but it doesn't tell which.

If you count up the countries in the Med and discount Israel it would be a question of which country they are not visiting.