Surface Forces: Russians Off the Coast of Guam

Archives

March31, 2006: On March 30, 2006, the U.S. and Russian navies finished a PASSEX (passage exercise) off the coast of Guam. This sort of thing is done to enhance cooperation between two navies. Two American cruisers, the USS Cowpens and the USS Chosin, operated with the Russian destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov; the tank landing ship BDK-11; the oiler Pechenga; and the tug SB-522.

What's odd about this is that it's tagged as a "humanitarian assistance and disaster relief" exercise, as well as a PASSEX. None of the official news releases described the humanitarian and disaster relief part of it, but it would be hard to do in conjunction with a PASSEX.
Apparently Marshall Shaposhnikov is one of only two Udaloy Class ships that seem to make it to sea regularly; the Russians have been experiencing a severe shortage of spare parts for their gas turbines. The Soviets put the factory for these engines in Ukraine, and Ukraine is now charging serious bucks for spares. The Russians are building their own plant to ease the problem.
Note the presence of the tug. It's always been standard practice when units of the Russian fleet deployed, and has on occasion proven useful.

Actually, even during the Cold War there were occasions on which US and Soviet warships participated in exercises together. Usually these were being staged by some Third World country that invited both, like India, Pakistan, or Ethiopia (until Haile Selassie was ousted).

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close