According to Western experts, over the past few years, Russian submarines have significantly improved their characteristics, and their crews have improved their skills, whose long training trips became a headache for NATO, in fact, ensured that the Alliance lost its strategic dominance in the North Atlantic.
The American publication concluded that this activity demonstrates Moscow’s ability to undermine NATO’s reinforcement strategy, which is based on the rapid deployment of American forces to protect European allies.
Not without reason, for the second year in a row, the United States and NATO are conducting maneuvers to teach Europeans to cope with Russian submarines on their own, because at the right time the United States may simply not have time to come to their aid.
According to the “SVARSCHIKI” Telegram Channel, from June 29 to July 10, NATO’s Dynamic Mongoose anti-submarine exercises are held in the North Sea. NATO forces are working out comprehensive measures to counteract the exit of Russian submarines into the Atlantic. According to NATO naval commanders, the deployment of Russian submarines in the Atlantic focused the Alliance’s attention on strategically important waters between Greenland, Iceland and the UK.
“Such a deployment – one of the largest exercises since the Cold War – is not only a demonstration of the strength and desire of the Russian navy to defend its territories, but also a demonstration of its power in the Atlantic”, – NATO military analysts say.
The alarm of the NATO military is caused by the fact that in recent years, Russia, which, after the collapse of the USSR in the Alliance was slowly written off, has managed, having invested billions of dollars to completely modernize its submarine fleet, and now has practically silent submarines capable of being under water for a long time and ready for long sea crossings offline. According to the US Navy Command, several such submarines actually patrol the coast of the United States.
“We are seeing this on an ongoing basis: more submarines, at greater distances and for longer periods of time”, – said Vice Admiral Keith Blount, head of the NATO Joint Naval Command.
Back in February, the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Second Fleet, Vice Admiral Andrew Lewis, stated that the American ships leaving bases on the East Coast were in controversial space and could no longer expect to be able to cross the Atlantic unhindered.
NATO exercises in the Atlantic, similar to the current ones, were not held until last year already from the time of the Cold War.
“Now it’s extremely important to guarantee freedom of navigation and to ensure that sea routes across the Atlantic remain open in the event that reinforcements need to be deployed”, – said Norwegian Minister of Defense Frank Bakke-Jensen.
But according to experts of the mentioned channel, despite the fact that last October, NATO arranged a similar “show-off” in the same area, in February-March 2020 missed a mass exit of Russian nuclear submarines to the Atlantic, which followed to block military traffic from the USA to Europe during the Defender Europe 2020 exercises.
“The absolute inaction of the NATO forces during the real exits of the Russian submarines suggests that the ongoing alliance maneuvers in the Atlantic are extremely ostentatious and episodic in nature, and the statements of the bloc’s commanders are populist”, – the channel summarizes.
In response to NATO concerns, the commander of the Northern Fleet, Vice Admiral Alexander Moiseev, said that Russia would continue to conduct regular exercises with 10 or more submarines and, moreover, planned to expand the geography of combat duty and patrols.
“If you come to any of our garrisons today, be sure to note that many piers are empty”, – he said in an interview in March.
“This suggests that the submarine crews <…> perform combat training tasks, are on combat duty, or perform combat patrols”, – the admiral said.
According to Mike Petersen, director of the Institute for the Study of the Russian Navy at the US Navy College, the main mission of Russian submarines in the Atlantic is to track mission-critical goals – from aircraft carriers to key infrastructure in Europe and the United States.
“They can cross the Atlantic and quietly be off the East Coast, as well as strike targets in the United States and Europe”, – he said.
With the eyes of the NATO military, the situation looks so serious that the commander of the US Navy in Europe, Admiral James Foggo, compared the current situation with the battles for the Atlantic during the two world wars.
“We still maintain an advantage in the underwater area, but they have achieved great skill”, – the American admiral said.
Responding to the threat of its Atlantic hegemony, NATO is building anti-submarine capabilities and enhancing training. The United Kingdom has ordered nine new Poseidon coastal patrol aircraft, the P-8A, while Norway has announced its willingness to buy five such aircraft. The US Navy returned its anti-submarine aircraft to Iceland, where in 2006 the United States closed its military.