Yesterday, after the command handover ceremony in Gölcük Naval Base, the 5 ships participating to this activation of the BlackSeaFor sailed away to their next port of call Trabzon, Istanbul. In order to this they had to pass through Bosphorus, where I was expecting them, as you can see from the photos above.
The August activation of BlackSeaFor will start today with a ceremony in Gölcük Naval Base, Izmit, Turkey. The Russian Navy will hand over the command of the BlackSeaFor to Turkey. The activation of the BlackSeaFor will end on 24th August. During that time the task force will conduct several exercises and will visit Trabzon, Turkey and Novorossiysk, Russia. Number Name... Continue Reading →
The Sea Breeze 2012 naval exercise (not to be confused with Breeze naval exercise organised by Bulgaria) organized by Ukraine and held in Odessa has finished. It is the largest multinational maritime exercise in the Black Sea. 1,500 troops from 16 countries, including U.S., Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Algiers, Bangladesh, Belgium, Denmark, Georgia, Israel, Canada, Moldova, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Qatar, Turkey. The... Continue Reading →
The effort of the Ukrainian Navy and the resources they spend to put their only submarine Foxtrot class (Project 641) U-01 Zaporizya back to full operational status is amazing. I have tried to follow and report of these efforts since I have heard about it, in February 2010. After being left unused and unmaintained for a very long periods, the... Continue Reading →
I had reported about the port visit of the Safeguard class salvage ship of the US Military Sealift Command T-ARS-51 USNS Grasp in Istanbul last week. I had the impression that after leaving Istanbul USNS Grasp would be heading to the Mediterranean as had spent at least 14 days in the Black Sea where she... Continue Reading →
I was slow to follow this event but it is important. Between 23 and 27 April 2012, the sole Ukrainian submarine Zaporizya conducted a series of test in the Black Sea. This is the first time that the 42 year old submarine sailed alone since 1992. The Foxtrot (Project 641) class Zaporizya is the only... Continue Reading →
As I have reported earlier, the ships of the BlackSeafor fleet visited Istanbul between 20 and 23 April 2012. They were open to the public and I took the opportunity to visit them all. It was an interesting experience for me as I was able to compare different ships build by very different construction standards... Continue Reading →
The April activation of the BlackSeaFor finished this week and the ships that took part have returned to their home ports. Istanbul was the last stop for the BlackSeafor fleet. The following ships arrived in Istanbul on 20th April 2012 for the port visit. Number Name Nation Participants 158 RFS Tsesar Kunikov (Flagship) Russia Landing Ship F-240 TCG Yavuz Turkey... Continue Reading →
On 17th April 2012, the ships of the BlackSeaFor naval task force will end their port visit in Sevastopol, Ukraine and will be sailing again for further training. This is the google translation of the official announcement from the Ukraine Defence Ministry website: April 10-12 ships, after four-day stay in the port of Constanta (Romania), which began on April 6... Continue Reading →
On 6th April 2012 the Spring Activation of the call-on naval task force BlackSeaFor has started in Constanta, Romania. The Russian Federation is in command of the BlackSeaFor since August 2011 and the Russian landing ship Tsesar Kunikov is the flagship of the force. This activation of the BlackSeaFor will last until 24th April. during this period the... Continue Reading →
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