Russia is sharply upgrading the firepower of its Baltic Fleet by adding warships armed with long-range cruise missiles to counter NATO’s build-up in the region, Russian media reported on Wednesday.
There was no official confirmation from Moscow, but the reports will raise tensions in the Baltic, already heightened since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and cause particular alarm in Poland and Lithuania which border Russia’s base there.
The reported deployment comes as NATO is planning its biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War to deter possible Russian aggression.
Russia’s daily Izvestia newspaper cited a military source as saying that the first two of five ships, the Serpukhov and the Zeleny Dol, had already entered the Baltic Sea and would soon become part of a newly formed division in Kaliningrad, Russia’s European exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.
Another source familiar with the situation told the Interfax news agency that the two warships would be joining the Baltic Fleet in the coming days.
“With the appearance of two small missile ships armed with the Kalibr cruise missiles the Fleet’s potential targeting range will be significantly expanded in the northern European military theater,” the source told Interfax.
Russia’s Defence Ministry, which said earlier this month the two ships were en route to the Mediterranean, did not respond to a request for comment, but NATO and the Swedish military confirmed the two warships had entered the Baltic.
“NATO navies are monitoring this activity near our borders,” said Dylan White, the alliance’s acting spokesman.
The Buyan-M class corvettes are armed with nuclear-capable Kalibr cruise missiles, known by the NATO code name Sizzler, which the Russian military says have a range of at least 1,500 km (930 miles).
Though variants of the missile are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the ships are believed to be carrying conventional warheads.
“The addition of Kalibr missiles would increase the strike range not just of the Baltic Fleet, but of Russian forces in the Baltic region, fivefold,” said Ben Nimmo, a defense analyst at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, who has been tracking the ships’ progress.
“The two small corvettes, with their modern, nuclear-capable missiles, may yet have an impact out of proportion to their size in the Baltic.”
Russia publishes image of ‘Satan 2’, the missile that could ‘wipe out Texas’
Russia has declassified the first ever image of its new thermonuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile, the RS-28 Sarmat.
Image of satan 2
In May this year Sputnik, a Russian publication aligned with the Kremlin, claimed the missile could carry a payload capable of wiping a landmass “the size of Texas or France”.
Known colloquially as “Satan 2” the missile will replace its predecessor, the RS-36M, dubbed “Satan” by NATO after entering service in the 1970s.
A statement signed by chief designer V. Degtar and leading designer Y. Kaverin accompanied the illustration on its release Sunday.
“In accordance with the Decree of the Russian Government ‘On the State Defense Order for 2010 and the planning period 2012-2013,’ the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau was instructed to start design and development work on the Sarmat.
“In June 2011, the Bureau and the Russian Ministry of Defense signed a state contract for the Sarmat’s development,” reads the note on the bureau’s website.
According to Russian media, the missile’s first stage engine PDU-99 was tested in August, while a hypersonic warhead for the upcoming missile was reportedly tested back in April.
The Sarmat is expected to enter service in late 2018.
SWEDEN, POLAND WORRIED
Izvestia said Russia’s Baltic Fleet would probably receive a further three such small warships armed with the same missiles by the end of 2020.
It said the Baltic Fleet’s coastal defenses would also be beefed up with the Bastion and Bal land-based missile systems. The Bastion is a mobile defense system armed with two anti-ship missiles with a range of up to 300 km (188 miles). The Bal anti-ship missile has a similar range.
Sweden’s Defence Minister said his country was worried by the presence of the warships in the Baltic Sea, complaining the move was likely to keep tension in the region high.
“This is … worrying and is not something that helps to reduce tensions in our region,” Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist told Sweden’s national TT news agency. “This affects all the countries round the Baltic.”
Swedish media said the Kalibr missiles had the range to hit targets across the Nordic region. The Russian Defence Ministry said in August that the two corvettes had been used to fire cruise missiles at militants in Syria.
Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz, in Brussels for a NATO meeting, called the deployment “an obvious cause for concern,” the PAP news agency reported. “Moving such ships into the Baltic changes the balance of power,” he said.
Earlier this month, Russia moved nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles into Kaliningrad leading to protests from Lithuania and Poland.
In Other News; UK deploys hundreds of troops and aircraft to eastern Europe
The UK is deploying hundreds of troops, as well as aircraft and armour to eastern Europe as part of the biggest build-up of Nato forces in the region since the cold war. The deployment is taking place during growing tensions over a series of high-profile Russian military manoeuvres.
RAF Typhoon aircraft from RAF Coningsby will be sent to Romania for up to four months, while 800 personnel will be sent with armoured support to Estonia, 150 more than previously planned, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. France and Denmark will also commit more troops, the British government said.
The announcement was made soon after a Russian fleet, believed to be bound to take part in the fighting in Syria, passed close to the British Isles. On Wednesday, Russia withdrew a request to refuel its boats in Spanish territory, as Nato put pressure on Madrid to deny permission.
Tensions between Nato members and Russia have been heightened since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and Ukraine descended into civil war as a result.
The deployment of British troops to Estonia forms part of a wider Nato commitment to station four new battalions, totalling around 4,000 personnel, on the alliance’s eastern flank.
David Cameron confirmed at Nato’s summit in Warsaw in July that the UK was to send 650 troops to Estonia. As well as announcing the extra 150, the MoD on Wednesday gave further details of the deployment, including the Typhoons, a detachment of drones and Challenger tanks.
The UK defence secretary, Michael Fallon, said the first deployments are expected to begin in May next year. Speaking after a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels, Fallon said: “Backed by a rising defence budget this deployment of air, land and sea forces shows that we will continue to play a leading role in Nato, supporting the defence and security of our allies from the north to the south of the alliance.”
The RAF Typhoon fighters will be sent to join the Baltic air policing mission to offer reassurance to the Black Sea allies, the MoD said. It will be the first time RAF planes have been dispatched to patrol Romanian airspace.
The moves are intended to underline the alliance’s commitment to the collective defence of all its members – including the Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, which, like Ukraine, have significant Russian-speaking minorities as well as acting as a “trigger” in the event of any aggression.
US troops heading to front of new Cold War with Putin
The US and Canada were also preparing to send forces to eastern Europe.
Barack Obama announced earlier this year that the US was deploying a “battle-ready” task-force of about 900 soldiers to Poland, as well as armour across eastern Europe. The country was also preparing to send troops to Norway for the first time.
Canada and Italy were reported to be sending troops to Latvia, while hundreds of German forces were said to be due to move to Lithuania. Belgium, Croatia and Luxembourg were also among the countries reported to be ready to commit forces.
“Nato does not seek confrontation with Russia. We don’t want a new cold war and we don’t want a new arms race,” the alliance’s head, Jens Stoltenberg, was quoted as saying. “What Nato does is defensive and it is proportionate.”
He told reporters he was very inspired after a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels because “so many nations made very, very firm and concrete decisions” over their contributions to the four-battalion deployment.
Such commitments were “a transatlantic demonstration of rock solid support for our allies” and the deployment will send an “unmistakable message – Nato stands as one. An attack on one ally will be considered an attack on all,” he said.
The Typhoons will be based at Mihail Kogălniceanu Airbase, Romania, for up to four months in 2017.
The UK deployment is likely to include armoured infantry, equipped with Warrior armoured fighting vehicles and a troop of Challenger 2 main battle tanks.
