China and Russia have been cementing their unholy naval alliance with regular exercises. The live fire “Joint Sea 2017” July 22 to July 28, is the latest. It is being held far from China, in the Baltic Sea near European Russia. See good Youtube about how Baltic nations are worried.
The regular Joint Sea exercises have been held since 2012 and mark the eclipse of Russia as a top five conventional naval power but China’s rise as the number two conventional naval power (neck and neck with Japan). Russia’s possession of the second largest fleet of nuclear submarines complicates relative strength measurements a bit.
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Read more: https://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/news/2014_05_26/Russian-Chinese-military-exercises-Joint-Sea-2014-end-in-China-9370/
Pete
The regular Joint Sea exercises have been held since 2012 and mark the eclipse of Russia as a top five conventional naval power but China’s rise as the number two conventional naval power (neck and neck with Japan). Russia’s possession of the second largest fleet of nuclear submarines complicates relative strength measurements a bit.
Throughout the Joint Sea Exercises Russia has only been able to deploy very small or very old vessels (of uncertain engine reliability). Large tugboats therefore feature large in Russian flotillas.
China’s Xinhuanet News Agency reports the 2017 exercise includes: “drills on a map”; live firing of “secondary cannons” (30mm on Chinese vessels); air defence; “joint landing and inspection”; search and rescue; and underway replenishment, etc.
For 2017 the Russian Navy can only muster two corvettes (Steregushchy and the Boiky) and an essential tugboat (SB-123). Russia is providing lots of land based airpower though.
The Chinese flotilla consists of:
Type 052D destroyer Hefei 合肥 (DDG-174). It is the third 052D built, commissioned December 2015, in China’s South Sea Fleet. Its AESA radar and 64 cell VLS may make it almost as effective as a US Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.
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Type 054A multi-role frigate Yuncheng运城, No. 546 (sister ship above). At 4,000 tons (with a 32 cell VLS, 8 Harpoon like ASM, ASW torpedos and ASROC launchers) it is of the size and armament that the US Navy can return to - after the abortive US LCS program.
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And Type 903 replenishmentship Lomahu. 骆马湖, No. 964, commissioned July 2016 based at South Sea Fleet (sister ship above). At 23,000 tons it is a useful size for a flotilla. (photo courtesy Coatepeque at Chinese Defense Blog).
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PREVIOUS JOINT SEA Exercises
submarines, 13 warplanes, nine helicopters and two commando units participated
Read more: https://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/news/2014_05_26/Russian-Chinese-military-exercises-Joint-Sea-2014-end-in-China-9370/
- Joint Sea 2013was held in the Sea of Japan, July 5-12, 2013. 18 ships of the 2 countries took part
- Joint Sea 2014 was held in May 2014 in the East China Sea.
- Joint Sea 2015, held May 2015, in the Mediterranean Sea, included two Type 054A frigates
(Linyi and Weifang) and Type 903 replenishment ship Weishanhusubscription source, and
- Joint Sea 2016, was held September 2016, in the South China Sea. Three Russian warships and two
supply ships exercised with ten Chinese Navy ships (destroyers, frigates, landing ships, supply
ships and submarines) took part.
So the exercises are very regular. It is is not yet clear whether pro-Russian Trump will bother to comment or Twitter about this symptom of Chinese-Russian naval alliance.
Pete