In this October, 2001 file photo the Pyotr Velikiy, Peter the Great, Russian nuclear-powered missile cruiser seen near Severomorsk, Russia. Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov, Russia’s navy chief says Friday, July 27, 2012, that Moscow is talking to Cuba, Vietnam and the Seychelles about housing Russian navy ships. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, File)
Summary
With few warm weather ports, Russia has never been able to match the naval power of maritime giants like Britain and the United States over the last two centuries. Its latest deployment of ships to the Gulf of Aden to conduct anti-piracy operations is a sign, however, that its naval aspirations are growing.
A deployment to the Gulf of Aden is the showcase of Russia’s new naval strategy, which is more open to cooperating with international maritime efforts as part of a larger effort to regain its Soviet-era reputation as a credible blue-water navy. Russia is also keen to send signals to the wider world that it will take aggressive steps to protect its interests in places like Syria, where it maintains a naval base and supports a regime that the West wishes to displace.
Background
Russia announced in late December that it would send another naval task force from its Northern Fleet to the Gulf of Aden to supplement ships it already has there participating in international anti-piracy operations. The task force includes the destroyer Severomorsk, along with a salvage tug and a tanker.
Since 2008, Russian war ships have successfully escorted 733 commercial vessels through the pirate-infested waters off the Somali coast. For this upcoming deployment, it has asked France for permission to station two IL-38 maritime reconnaissance planes at its airbase in Djibouti, further expanding Russia’s presence abroad.
The Severomorsk task force left its home port in the Barents Sea on December 18 and will take part in a large-scale Russian naval exercise in the Mediterranean and Black Seas in January on its way to the Gulf of Aden. The exercise will involve air defense, anti-ship and anti-submarine operations.
Russia’s naval base in Tartus, Syria is still of great strategic importance to Moscow because it is its only foreign naval base. Since April 2012, the Russian Navy has maintained a continual presence in the eastern Mediterranean, a tangible sign of its support for the Assad regime.
Russia wants more foreign bases to help expand its naval presence around the world. It has been in talks with Vietnam and Yemen over the past couple of years to renew Soviet-era leases on ports in Cam Ranh Bay and on Socotra Island. Russia also reportedly has been discussing basing rights with Cuba and the Seychelles.
There are other signs also that Russia is ramping up its naval presence. In July 2012, three ships from Russia’s Pacific Fleet participated for the first time in the U.S.-led Rim of the Pacific (also known as RIMPAC) which included ships from 22 nations along the Pacific Rim.
Russia’s navy will be bolstered by increased spending, which is expected to reach almost $700 billion for new weapons by 2020. Twenty-five percent of the military budget is now spent on the navy, a greater percentage than was allocated during the Soviet era. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on January 3 that it would commission more than 50 new war ships by 2016, including nuclear strategic ballistic missile submarines and special operations support vessels.
Analysis
Encompassing a massive amount of territory across Europe and Asia, Russia has traditionally been a land rather than sea power. Lacking warm weather ports for its ships, Russia never developed the sea-faring culture of the dominant naval powers of the last two centuries, Britain and the United States.
This said, Russia did develop a strong navy during the Soviet era, especially with its submarine force, which held a significant part of its nuclear deterrent. But when the Cold War ended in 1990, the country slipped back into its long pattern of neglecting its navy.
The decline was symbolized in 2000 by an onboard explosion that sank the nuclear submarine Kursk. It was an accident that could have been prevented and highlighted like nothing else could the many problems that plagued the country’s naval operations, even in waters near Russia’s coast.
Part of the explanation for this post-Cold War deterioration in naval prowess lay in Russia’s struggling economy. But now with energy prices high around the world, its treasury is able to better maintain the country’s naval force, and even procure new vessels to expand its strength.
Russia’s persistent presence in the eastern Mediterranean, its upcoming naval exercises and its continued support of the anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia, demonstrate Moscow’s resolve to regain its former standing as a credible blue water naval power.
As aggressive as Russia is in strengthening its navy, it is not on the verge of a new Soviet-style military build-up. Russian leaders realize that they cannot compete with U.S. military spending and procurement, and are instead focused on more narrow goals that involve protecting regional interests.
Russia also has its eyes on China’s growing navy, which now includes an aircraft carrier. Sharing a land border that stretches 2,600 miles, the two countries are natural rivals that almost went to war with each other in the early 1960s.
Russia’s far eastern region, which includes Siberia, has few inhabitants and is exposed to Chinese power in a way the rest of Russia is not. A strong Russian navy helps mitigate this regional mismatch with a force at sea to bolster its weak presence on land.
Energy security is another concern for Russia. Whether in the Arctic, or in places such as the South China Sea, where Russian companies are cooperating with Vietnam on oil and gas exploration, it must possess the capacity to protect its citizens working abroad.
Parallel with improving its navy, Russia is also moving to strengthen its nuclear arsenal. The naval arm of its triad, which features nuclear missiles deployed on submarines, gives it another reason to ramp up spending in both areas.
Conclusion
Russia’s continued participation in anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia is just one piece of its new naval strategy and the expansion of its presence on the global maritime stage. It is reaching out to become more involved in multi-national and bilateral exercises, and conducting more port visits to show the Russian flag.
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