Russia’s nuclear submarine fleet is fading away. The navy budget, despite recent increases, is not large enough to build new ships to replace the current Cold war era fleet that is falling apart. This is not much noticed. The rapid decline of Russia’s nuclear submarine fleet got some attention only because Russia needed international help [...]

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The increased Russian naval presence in the region means that the Kremlin is seeking to cultivate Syria as a close regional ally, and is looking to secure additional bases for the Black Sea Fleet besides its current base in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol.
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If Syria is an ally of Russia, then the video [...]

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Friday’s announcement was the first tangible sign of any new cooperation. The Itar-Tass news agency reported a vessel from Russia’s Black Sea fleet had begun restoring facilities at Syria’s Mediterranean port of Tartus for use by the Russian military.
The two countries’ naval chiefs also met in Moscow on Friday and discussed “further strengthening mutual trust [...]

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Soviet military policies never called for building full-fledged aircraft carriers operating multi-role warplanes. Nor did Russia draft any clear carrier construction program at the turn of the century.
On July 4, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, former chief of the Russian Navy’s Main Headquarters, said the country had to build a carrier fleet in the near future. This [...]

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The Russian Navy’s shipbuilding plans are still mostly plans. For the last seventeen years, most of their construction effort went into finishing a few subs, and building for export. Currently building are three SSBNs (the new Borei class, for which the missile is not quite ready yet), one new SSN (attack sub, that has been [...]

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Russia will put its first Borey-class strategic nuclear submarine through sea trials in the second half of 2008, the Russian Navy commander said on Friday.
The fourth generation Yury Dolgoruky was built at the Sevmash plant in the northern Arkhangelsk Region and was taken out of dry dock last April. It will be equipped with [...]

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