On Sunday, 31 July 2022, Russia will once again celebrate the anniversary of the Navy in Saint Petersburg. As expected and also announced (see report from 8 July 2022), the two nuclear submarines "Severodvinsk" and "Vepr" were detected coming from the Northern Fleet between Norway and Scotland, entering the North Sea and the Skagerrak, and were accompanied by NATO naval units on their further journey.

The submarine frigate HMS Portland of the somewhat aged Type 23 (first commissioned in 1991, 4,300 tonnes), which left the shipyard at Christmas, was allowed to make its first attempt. Fittingly, she was prepared for her operational mission as part of a NATO naval sub-hunting exercise at the beginning of the year (Cold Response 2022).

Northwest of Bergen, the two boats appeared independently of each other on 16 and 19 July, having been spotted and shadowed by the frigate and its Merlin helicopter for some time. The Royal Air Force P-8A Poseidon - one of the nine Boeing maritime patrol aircraft recently delivered to Scotland from the USA (RAF Lossiemouth, not far from Loch Ness) - flew to assist.

"Severodvinsk" is the type boat of the Yasen class (project 885/885M, 12,00 tonnes submerged, in service since 2013) and carries 32 cruise missiles in the mix SS-N-27 Sizzler/Kalibr (sea target) and SS-N-30 Sagaris/Kalibr (land target) in eight vertical launch silos in the area aft of the turret. "Vepr" is the penultimate boat of the Akula class, was built as Akula-II (project 971U, 9,500 tonnes submerged, in service since 1995) and as an attack submarine carries various torpedoes and cruise or sea target missiles launched from torpedo tubes, which are usually also nuclear-capable.

And from Sunday, there will once again be impressive pictures of the naval parade in front of Peterhof Palace in the roadstead of St Petersburg.