Vladimir Putin sent two of his nuclear submarines under the polar icecap in the Arctic as he completed the largest naval war exercise since the Cold War.
Putin showed off his firepower as he sent the Emperor Alexander III strategic ballistic nuclear submarine – capable of carrying Kalibr hypersonic atomic missiles – on a ‘subglacial march’.
It was accompanied by the Krasnoyarsk Yasen-M class nuclear-powered attack submarine on a route that ‘crossed six Arctic seas.’
The polar mission was done ‘to reinforce the Pacific Fleet in accordance with the Ocean-2024 strategic military exercise plan.’
Putin staged the Ocean-2024 war games – the largest since the Cold War – in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, and the Mediterranean, Caspian and Baltic Seas.
A number of drills involved the Chinese navy in a sign of increased cooperation between the two countries.
Earlier, Putin sent two Tu-160 ‘White Swan’ strategic bombers on a mission to the north of the United Kingdom over the Norwegian Sea.
In other action, Marshal Ustinov and the Admiral Golovko warships of the Northern fleet trained for combat with ‘hostile warships’ in the Barents Sea.
More than 400 warships, submarines, and auxiliary fleet support vessels took part in the drills, as did 120-plus aircraft and helicopters from Russia’s naval aviation and Aerospace Forces.
Some 90,000 military personnel took part, with 7,000 units of weapons, the largest exercise of its kind since 1985.
The aim was ‘to test the readiness of the leadership of the formations and units of the Russian Navy to control heterogeneous groupings of forces in their areas of responsibility.’
The war games simulated ‘combat actions’ to destroy vessels, aircraft and forces of a ‘mock enemy’.
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