DTN News: Russia's Black Sea Fleet May Lose All Warships By 2015

DTN News: Russia's Black Sea Fleet May Lose All Warships By 2015 Source: DTN News / Ria Novosti (NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia - April 5, 2010: The majority of warships in the Russian Black Sea Fleet have been in service for over 30 years and would not be fit for sea missions by 2015, a Russian newspaper said. "The crews will certainly try to keep their ships in decent condition until the last moment, but the "iron" has its service life. Nobody would dare to set sail on a ship whose bottom has rotten away," the Gazeta newspaper said on Friday citing a Navy source. Earlier reports indicated that the Black Sea Fleet is set to decommission the Ochakov destroyer and a diesel submarine built in 1982. Next on the "scrap" list are the Kerch destroyer and several large support ships. The fleet does not expect any additions in 2010 and the prospects of new deliveries in the next few years are also quite slim, the source said. The official said the only solution for the looming crisis would be the construction of at least a dozen of Project 20380 corvettes which have been designed to protect Russia's coastal waters and oil and gas sea transportation routes, especially in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. The first Project 20380 corvette, the Steregushchy, was put into service with Russia's Baltic Fleet in October 2008. The second, the Soobrazitelny, was floated out on March 31, and two other ships of the same series, the Boyky and the Stoyky, are under construction. The source said that the Russian shipbuilding industry simply does not have the capacity to build the sufficient number of warships and submarines to satisfy the needs of the fleet. "All shipbuilding yards are swamped with foreign orders years ahead, and it is difficult to raise the production capacity even with sufficient financing because they do not have enough skilled workers," the source said. He expressed hope that Russia would be able to order some warships to be built at Ukrainian shipyards now that Moscow and Kiev have set step on the way to improve relations that soured during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko.

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DTN News: Russia Delivers 15 S-300 Air-Defense Batteries To China

DTN News: Russia Delivers 15 S-300 Air-Defense Batteries To China Source: DTN News / Ria Novosti (NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia - April 5, 2010: Russia has delivered a total of 15 batteries of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to China, the manufacturer said on Friday. Igor Ashurbeili, general director of the Almaz-Antei concern, said it had thus completed the contract with China but gave no indication of how much it was worth or specifically how many S-300s had been delivered. An S-300 battery is typically comprised of four truck-mounted installations, each consisting of four missiles. He added that there was a "huge line" of foreign clients waiting to buy S-300s and a more advanced version, the S-400, but that no new contracts would be signed for the time being. "First we have to arm the Russian military. If there are available production capacities and we fulfill our current contracts, then this process [the signing of new contracts] will resume," he said. Ashurbeili added that the "available capacities situation" would not become clear until after the Defense Ministry adopted a state arms procurement program through 2020. He offered no indication of when that could be. Nor was it clear whether Russia was behind on its current contracts. The advanced version of the S-300 missile system, called S-300PMU1 (SA-20 Gargoyle), has a range of over 150 kilometers (over 100 miles) and can intercept ballistic missiles and aircraft at low and high altitudes, making the system an effective tool for warding off possible airstrikes. First deployed by the Soviet Union in 1979, it is still considered to be one of the most potent antiaircraft missile systems currently available. It can simultaneously track up to 100 targets and engage up to 12.

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