The second Ada-class corvette for the Ukrainian Navy has been launched in Turkey. The ship is called “Hetman Ivan Vygovsky”. The corvette “Ivan Mazepa” is already ready and is undergoing tests in the Black Sea.
The command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has repeatedly stressed that these corvettes cannot be based in Ukrainian ports until the end of the conflict. It is likely that these two Ukrainian corvettes will soon join their used counterparts based in Portsmouth, Great Britain. The main achievement is participation in the NATO Sea Breeze exercises. The latest one was the 2024 edition dedicated to mine countermeasures. The exercise, held in June, was jointly led by the US 6th Fleet and the Ukrainian Navy, hosted by the Royal Navy and involves NATO and international partners.
The aim of the exercise is to address the challenges that mines pose to maritime security, global food security and trade. It focused on the integration, command and control of mine countermeasures ships and a Ukrainian task force headquarters reinforced by staff officers and international mentors.
At the same time, at the beginning of the year, the Ukrainians expressed interest in the Royal Navy frigates HMS Argyll and HMS Westminster, which the British intend to dismantle. It is possible that they will also join the Ukrainian naval forces.
Therefore, Great Britain and Norway, as part of the so-called “coalition of maritime capabilities”, will continue both training Ukrainian sailors and supplying the Ukrainian Navy with obsolete equipment.
The main military parade of the Russian Federation was held in Russia on July 28, and it is one of the few moments to see some elements of the Russian fleet. Officially, the Ministry of Defense did not announce in what composition the warships would participate in the parade this year, but most of them were already anchored in the center of St. Petersburg days before. Among them were the corvette “Boiky”, the guard corvette “Soobrazitelny”, the small missile boats “Serpukhov”, “Odintsovo” and “Sovetsk”, the icebreaker patrol ship “Ivan Papanin”.
Several fleets, including the Caspian Flotilla and the Navy’s training base in the Mediterranean Sea, will take part in the July 28 naval parades, in total up to 200 ships and vessels will take part.
Most of the Russian corvettes are returning from 30 combat exercises during the Russian-Chinese exercise “Maritime Cooperation – 2024”. In two weeks, the corvettes “Gromky”, “Rezkiy” and “Sovershenny” have covered about 4,800 nautical miles (about 8,889 kilometers). After refueling and technical checks, they will continue to perform tasks according to the training plan to combat.
The parade was followed by maneuvers, which ended in early August and involved more than 300 ships. The deployment of three hundred surface units, submarines and support vessels was complemented by the presence of 50 aircraft of all types and more than 20,000 soldiers.
The main goal of the recent exercises, according to Tass, was to test the Navy’s chain of command, as well as the readiness of ship crews, naval air units and coastal troops to carry out designated missions.
Graziella Giangiulio
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