This year’s Russian Navy Day, return to the original color of the celebration
On the same day, Russia held an event to celebrate the Navy Day. In May 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order, deciding that the last Sunday in July each year is the Russian Navy Day. Xinhua News Agency/Reuters
The last Sunday in July is the Russian Navy Day. As usual, grand celebrations are held in the major cities where the four Russian fleets are stationed, and the maritime parade is an important part of the celebrations.
Russia regards the Naval Day parade as an important stage to demonstrate its maritime strength, and it is also a great opportunity to educate the domestic people on the maritime and naval forces. The international community can also use this to understand Russia’s maritime policy trends and naval strategic changes.
Due to the interweaving of various factors such as the development of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in Russia, this year's Russian Navy Day parade will only be held in a few cities such as St. Petersburg, Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk. A total of 250 ships, 80 aircraft and 15,000 officers and men were inspected. Compared with previous years, the scale of the military parade has been greatly reduced, and the form and content have also undergone major changes.
St. Petersburg is still the main venue of this year’s Naval Day parade. This is also because St. Petersburg is closely related to the fate of the Russian Navy. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great, the founder of the Russian Navy, built St. Petersburg on the desolate Neva River Delta, using it as a "bridgehead" to seize the Baltic Sea mouth, and then moved the capital here. Since then, St. Petersburg has been the capital of Tsarist Russia and the seat of the Baltic Fleet.
St. Petersburg is a veritable naval city. Today, St. Petersburg is still Russia’s naval shipbuilding center and the city with the largest concentration of Russian naval academies. During the “new look” reform of the Russian military launched in 2008, the Russian naval headquarters moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
The choice of the main venue for the Naval Day parade still needs to comply with political needs. In 2015, the Crimean soldiers merged into Russia without a bloodshed. Unsurprisingly, the main venue of the Naval Day parade was in Sevastopol. Putin attended the parade and delivered a speech, demonstrating Russia's determination and will to resolutely defend Crimea.
Crimea was merged into Russia. Russia’s biggest gain is that Sevastopol, the home port of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet, has secured its position. The long-term huge economic cost to Ukraine due to the Sevastopol lease issue and the resulting uncertainty, as well as the accompanying strategic risk of losing the most important strategic position on the Black Sea, have also disappeared.
In the Naval Day parade held on July 26, 46 ships sailed into the Neva River for inspection. Most of the ships under review are small ships. The 800-ton-class small guided missile ship, which made the limelight by launching "caliber" cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea to attack targets in Syria during the Syrian War, has become the star of the military parade as the largest displacement surface ship under review.
Among the ships under review, there are several 100-ton patrol boats, minesweepers, inland river gunboats, transportation boats, and tugboats. These ships have been re-painted with camouflage and look very beautiful. The three-masted galleon (imitation) of Peter the Great, which has been docked on the banks of the Neva River all the year round, also took part in the military parade. The Russian navy officers and soldiers who were read wore white dresses, and some of the crew even wore seaman costumes from the Tsarist Russia era. Although the situation of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in St. Petersburg is still severe, citizens still gathered on both sides of the Neva River to cheer and celebrate.
In fact, large ships can sail into the Neva River. In recent years, in the St. Petersburg Naval Day parade, modern-class guided missile destroyers, Dreadnought-class large anti-submarine ships, Toad-class landing ships, Kilo-class submarines and other large and medium-sized ships are the main forces of the parade. In 2019, the guided missile destroyer "Xi'an" of the Chinese Navy participated in the St. Petersburg Naval Day parade. In 2009, the French Northwesterly-class amphibious assault ship with a displacement of 20,000 tons visited St. Petersburg, and later there was the Russian-French "Northwesterly class arms purchase incident."
In addition, the city of St. Petersburg itself is a "world cultural heritage". Every summer is the peak tourist season. Many 10,000-ton luxury cruise ships from European countries will sail into the Neva River.
During the celebration, 41 aircraft of the Russian Navy Air Force were inspected, including Tu-95 strategic bombers, Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets and multi-type helicopters. Among them, the three aircraft formation composed of Tu-142 "Mayflower" anti-submarine patrol aircraft is the most eye-catching. The Tu-142 anti-submarine patrol aircraft is based on the modification of the Tu-95 strategic bomber. It is the world’s longest range and largest fixed-wing anti-submarine patrol aircraft, far surpassing the US Navy’s P-8A and P-3C anti-submarine patrol aircraft. The Tu-142 is an uncommon model, and even the Red Square parade rarely participates. The Baltic Sea is closed and small, making it a good place for submarine activities. In this type of sea area, Tu-142 is very useful.
President Putin, accompanied by Minister of Defense Shoigu and Commander-in-Chief Yevmenov, attended the naval festival celebration in St. Petersburg on July 26 and inspected the ships on the speedboat on the Neva River. In addition, military attaches stationed in Russia from more than 30 countries attended the ceremony.
Putin congratulated the navy officers and soldiers on a happy holiday and highly praised the navy for its major contributions to safeguarding national sovereignty and interests. In his speech, Putin mainly mentioned the achievements of the Russian Navy in ship construction in recent years, saying that the Russian Navy has various combat surface ships and submarines that can launch high-precision weapons, and will accept more than 40 ships of various types this year. With regard to the goals and direction of the Russian navy's strategic construction, Putin hardly involved.
In recent years, the achievements of the Russian Navy in construction, training, and operations are obvious to all, and they have been fully demonstrated in the Syrian war. In the Syrian war, the main tasks of the Russian navy were land strikes and maritime transportation. During the war, the Russian Navy's multi-type combat surface ships and submarines launched more than 180 "caliber" cruise missiles in the Mediterranean and Caspian waters, and carried out long-range precision strikes on important targets in Syria. The aircraft carrier "Kuznetsov" took part in actual combat for the first time, dispatching a total of 420 sorties of carrier-based aircraft and destroying more than 400 targets.
It can be said that this year's celebration of the Russian Navy Day has returned to its original nature. The main reason is that the naval festival activities have to make way for surprise combat readiness inspections and large-scale "Caucasus-2020" military exercises.
Beginning on July 17, the Russian military began to conduct surprise combat readiness inspections of the troops and service arms of its southern and western military regions. A total of 149,000 officers and soldiers, more than 20,000 weapons and technical equipment, 414 aircraft, and 106 ships participated. During the combat readiness inspection, a total of 56 tactical exercises were held, involving 35 training grounds on land and 17 maritime exercise areas in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. After the combat readiness inspection was over, the participating troops immediately transferred to the "Caucasus-2020" military exercise.
In recent years, the Russian army has combined surprise combat readiness inspections with large-scale military exercises as an important means to test the combat readiness of the troops and assess the combat skills of the troops. Do not greet or make pre-plans during combat readiness inspections, which can expose problems in training and equipment to the greatest extent. After the combat readiness check is over, large-scale military exercises are often carried out immediately. The exercise courses are not set online in terms of difficulty, and "chain drop" occurs from time to time. There is no bottom line in the assessment, and "failed" scores become the norm.
Although the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the surprise combat readiness inspection and the "Caucasus-2020" military exercises are not aimed at third parties, they cannot be linked to the current intensified armed conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Russia has long stationed troops in Armenia, while NATO countries such as the United States have tried to intervene in the affairs of the Caucasus by supporting Azerbaijan. Undoubtedly, Russia has released a very clear signal through the "Caucasus-2020" military exercise.
The Black Sea Fleet and the Caspian Sea Fleet are required to participate in assault readiness inspections and the "Caucasus-2020" military exercises, while the main ships of the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet must serve as strategic reserves. Therefore, the naval festival activities in the locations of these fleets are simplified. The maritime parade was cancelled. Although the Pacific Fleet held naval military parades in Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk, its main ships did not come out all over the country, and its core forces have been invested in surprise readiness inspections and the "Caucasus-2020" campaign. Scale military exercises.
Li Dapeng Source: China Youth Daily