These new state-of-the-art submarines are being deployed as the future ‘instruments of state’ ready to influence political policy in support of President Putin’s geopolitical aspirations.
New Borei and Yasen-class nuclear-powered submarines now sit with the Northern Fleet and at least one Typhoon submarine is listed as being in the active reserve. It also maintains Oscar, Sierra, Victor and Delta-class nuclear subs, which while having undergone upgrades are more than 30 years old. Moscow’s Northern Fleet is based around Murmansk and the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic Circle. Its headquarters is located at Severomorsk with six nearby bases at Polyarnyy, Olenya Bay, Gadzhiyevo, Vidyayevo including covering Ura Bay and Ara Bay, as well as Bolshaya Lopatka, and Gremikha where the fl eet’s submarines are based. The Barents Sea is their backyard training area as well as giving them access to the Norwegian Sea, the Greenland Sea, the Arctic Ocean and the Kara sea. North of the Barents Sea, Moscow has a base at the island Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya.
In 2014, Moscow established a new structure to give greater autonomy to the Russian armed forces in the north of the country. Known as Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command, the new formation saw a major increase in military resources and the increase in the operational area of responsibility across four districts and most of Russia’s islands in the Arctic sea. In the Second World War, the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and our global allies all fought on the same side against Nazi Germany in what was an uneasy alliance. But in the post-war years, that collaboration fell apart (K-211) and the Royal Navy Swiftsure-class boat HMS (S104) collided under the Barents Sea deep in the Arctic. Little detail of the accident has ever been revealed or confirmed, but suffered serious damaged and limped back to the UK. Later, senior officers revealed that the damage was close to a forward hatch on the casing deck, which had it leaked would have risked sinking the sub.