Here we go again…

That whole the Russians are our ‘friends’ thingie…

Well, not so much…

Russia’s Mediterranean task force will comprise 5-6 warships and may be enlarged to include nuclear submarines, Navy Commander Adm. Viktor Chirkov said on Sunday.

“Overall, already from this year, we plan to have 5-6 warships and support vessels [in the Mediterranean Sea], which will be replaced on a rotating basis from each of the fleets – the Black Sea, Baltic, Northern and, in some cases, even the Pacific Fleet. Depending on the scope of assignments and their complexity, the number of warships in the task force may be increased,” Chirkov told RIA Novosti. 

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier said a decision to deploy a permanent task force in the Mediterranean to defend Russia’s interests in the area had been made.

The Russian navy commander also said nuclear submarines could be deployed in the Mediterranean, if necessary.

Full article HERE.

Right now we have 1-2 ships and a couple of P-3’s as the TOTAL 6th Fleet force…

And the Brits will be no help, they’ve dumped all their aircraft ASW capability, ditto for the Dutch, and the Navy is ‘moving’ assets to the Pacific Fleet due to the issues out there… And we continue to reduce the numbers of ships, subs and acft in the inventory, along with significant loss of personnel…

I’m guessing the administration is probably going to cede control of the Med to the Russians, since a lot of the force is being moved to the Pacific to counter Chinese expansionist rhetoric… sigh…

Comments

Here we go again… — 12 Comments

  1. It isn’t quite true that we Brits have dumped our ASW aircraft. We’ve relied on helicopters dipping sonar for quite some time and that is still used.

    • Though it is sad that we don’t have Nimrod anymore.

  2. Bunch of phrases goin’ through my head . . .

    “weak horse” . . . . yep, we are

    “nature abhors a vaccum” . . . . yep, sure does

    “walk softly and carry a big stick” . . . . unless your name is Barry

    Going to be a long, dangerous and destructive 3 1/2 years . . . .

  3. My first duty station was a tin can homeported outside of Athens, part of DESRON 12 – six destroyers right there. We covered the entire Med, played tag with the Soviet fleet, and were everywhere from the Yom Kippur War to the Cypress uprising, to Spain, France, the Black Sea, and Tunisia.

    The good ol’ days, it seems. Thanks, BHO.

  4. I think that it can be captioned under, “Fundamentally transforming America.”

  5. The big DIA poster on our vault said:
    Countries don’t have friends, they have interests.

  6. Jonathan- You are correct Sir, I was looking at it from the long range aspect. And it IS sad that the Nimrod is gone.

    WSF- Spain and Italy do, Turkey not so much…

    Opus- Bingo!

    Bill- All of which a agree with… dammit…

    Rev- Yep the old days!

    LL- and NOT in a good way!!!

    Gerry- Oh so true!

    Crucis- Yep, BTDT don’t want to do it again!

  7. Holy denial of the seas, Batman.

    I know I’m just a slightly worse for wear Cav Scout turned frat boy, but you don’t have to be FADM King to realize that we are letting the Russians, the friggin Russian project force into what has traditionally been a NATO sphere of influence.

    It would appear that the Red, er, Russian fleet has finally managed to do what it has fantasized about since 1905.