The Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation 2022

In the current situation and with the increasing amount of information about troop movements on land, it is high time to get an overview of Russian Supreme Commander Vladimir Putin's naval formations! This is not easy for outsiders, but it is worth a try.

Of course, there will always be someone who knows more about this because they have worked intensively on it and may also have insider sources. With this in mind, the author is grateful for any information via the comments function - factual corrections will be added immediately after checking.

Russia's smallest fleet - Black Sea

After the Northern Fleet (NF), the Pacific Fleet (PF) and the Baltic Fleet (BF), the Black Sea Fleet (SF) (including the Caspian Flotilla) is the smallest of the Russian Federation's four fleets. At the beginning of the year, RT.com published a detailed article by retired military journalist Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok on the current status of the latter. Chodarenok, born in 1954, was an air force officer, served in the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and was transferred to the reserve at an early stage in 2000 in order to be able to work as a journalist.

Comparison in the region

Khodarenok opens his portrayal of the Black Sea Fleet with a side-swipe at the Ukrainian navy - it is not an "operational unit", as it only consists of a frigate, a minesweeper and a smaller attack ship. This statement is almost caricatured and is not true - at least not entirely. Of course, the Ukrainian navy is not strategically organised, underfunded and predominantly hopelessly outdated - but that's another story. The NATO states of Romania and Bulgaria don't really have anything substantial to offer against Russia's naval forces either. So he compares the Russian units stationed mainly in Sevastopol with the deployment of the Turkish navy - without, however, differentiating between their regional subdivisions. At the end of his remarks, Khodarenok concludes that the Black Sea Fleet is just as unstructured and outdated as the Ukrainian fleet because it only has a few modern newbuildings. And it would have to be at least twice as large in order to be "respectably" equipped in accordance with its weight in the region and to be able to be in control of the situation at all times without additional naval resources. The following list from the Russian side shows that this is certainly not the case - unless you have really big plans! But first a few comments on the Black Sea.

Position, length and width

The geographical location is characterised by two inland seas - the Sea of Azov from the Rostov-on-Don bases in the east to Kerch at the entrance to the Black Sea (400 kilometres) and the Black Sea itself (1,200 x 600 kilometres in size) with the naval ports of Novorossiysk on the eastern edge and Sevastopol in Crimea in the middle. Roughly speaking, one third of the coastline belongs to Turkey, and if you add the NATO states Bulgaria and Romania, then it is about half. The second half was shared by Ukraine, Georgia and the Russian Federation. However, after the annexation of Crimea, Russia substantially increased the claimed but not internationally recognised coastline to a length equal to that of Ukraine and Georgia combined. The seaward projection has also roughly quadrupled the area of internationally accessible waters of the Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea that it claims. The Caspian Sea is accessible via inland waterways (Volga-Don Canal).

Nuclear weapons

Ukraine, on whose territory a large part of the Soviet nuclear arsenal was located, announced its renunciation of nuclear weapons in 1994 against security and funding assurances from Moscow and Washington. It is doubtful whether this still applies to the entire territory of Crimea and the seaport of Sevastopol, as the Black Sea fleet also has launch silos that can accommodate nuclear-capable missiles. So much for "good intentions".

Limited access

Free access to the Black Sea is regulated by the Treaty of Montreux / Straits Agreement. According to this treaty, special rules apply to warships from non-littoral states in peacetime - they must register with Turkey eight days before passing through the Bosporus, may not stay there for longer than 21 days and may not displace more than 10,000 tonnes as a single ship, and may not exceed a total of 15,000 tonnes across all foreign units. Submarines and aircraft carriers are not even allowed in here!

The fleet in the district

But first to the southern Russian "Order of Battle" on the shores of the Crimea, which, despite all the restrictions, can certainly be described as "respectable"!

1 guided missile cruiser (modernised)
- Slava-class, "Moskva"; project 1164, 1982, 11,700 t; 8x2 SS-N-12B/P-1000; came out of the modernisation shipyard phase in mid-2020 (MF 10/2020) and had a FK shoot in early 2021 (MF 6/2021).

2 submarine frigates (obsolete)
- Krivak-II-class, "Ladny" and "Pytlivy"; project 1135M, 1980, 3,700 tonnes; 1x4 SS-N-14; decommissioned with the Grigorovich class.

7 missile boats (obsolete)
- 5 Tarantul-III-class, R-60 "Burya", R-334 "Ivanovets", R-109 "Bris", R-71 "Shuya", R 239 "Naberezhnye Chelny"; project 1241.1, 1986-99, 460 tonnes; 2x2 SS-N-22/3M82.
- 2 Dergach-class air-cushion catamaran, "Bora" (currently a shipyard vessel), "Samum"; project 1239, 1995-97, 1,000 tonnes; 2x2 SS-N-22, like Tarantul class.

3 modern frigates (new buildings, SF only)
- Grigorovich-class, "Admiral Grigorovich", "Admiral Makarov" and "Admiral Essen"; project 11356, 2016, 4,000 tonnes; 8 VLS SS-N-27/3M54, 24 VLS SA-N-7C/9M317; second batch of three ships planned, but construction numbers 4 and 5 are currently being completed for export (India).

4 + 2 modern patrol vessels (new buildings, SF only)
- Bykov-class. "Vasily Bykov", "Dmitry Rogachev", "Pavel Derzhavin", "Sergey Kotov"; project 22160, 2018-22, 1,300 t; FK armament containerised retrofittable, two under construction.

1 modern FK corvette (new building)
- Karakurt-class, "Tsiklon"; project 22800, 2021, 800 tonnes; 8 VLS SS-N-30/3M14 or SS-N-27/3M54; experimental unit.

4 small FK corvettes (newbuildings, water jet propulsion, originally for the Caspian Sea)
- Buyan-M-class, "Vushniy Volochek", "Orekhovo-Zuyevo", "Ingushetiya", "Grayvoron"; project 21631, 2017-19, 950 tonnes; 8 VLS SS-N-30/3M14.

6 submarines (obsolete)
- 1 Grisha-class, "Alexandrovets"; project 1124, 1973-85, 1,200 tonnes.
- 5 Grisha-V-class, "Muromets", "Suzdalets", "Povorino", "Eysk", "Kasimov"; project 1124M, 1982-96, 1,200 tonnes.

6 submarines, diesel-electric (New buildings)
- Kilo-III-class, "Novorossiysk", "Stary Oskol", "Krasnodar", "Veliky Novgorod", "Kolpino", "Rostov-on-Don"; project 636.3, 2014-16, 3,100 tonnes; 4x1 SS-N-27/3M54 or SS-N-30/3M14 via torpedo tube.

3 modern coastal minesweepers (New buildings)
- Alexandrite-class, "Ivan Antonov", "Vladimir Emelyanov", "Georgy Kurbatov"; project 12700, 2017-20, 900 tonnes.

5 Deep-sea minesweeper
- 4 Natya-I-class, "Ivan Golubets", "Turbinist", "Kovrovets", "Valentin Pikul", Project 226M, 1970-90, 800 tonnes;
- 1 Natya-III/Agat-class, "Vitseadmiral Zakharin" (2006).

1 deep-sea minesweeper
- Gorya-class, "Zheleznyakov"; project 12660, 1988, 1,100 tonnes.

7 Landing ships
- 3 Alligator-class, "Nikolay Filchenkov", "Orsk", "Saratov"; project 1171, 1966-76, 4,700 tonnes.
- 3 Ropucha-I-class, "Novocherkassk", "Tsesar Kunikov", "Yamal"; Project 775, 1980-88, 4,500 tonnes.
- 1 Ropucha-II-class, "Azov"; Project 775M, 1991, 4,500 tonnes.

Auxiliary vessels, small boats and reserve units

The Black Sea Fleet has a large number of larger platforms, from hospital ships to supply vessels and transporters, value-added and rescue ships, as well as reconnaissance and research units, which are not discussed in detail here. Also not listed are the speedboats known to be deployed in the Kerch Strait, coast guard units, support and liaison boats, as well as vehicles and platforms that are in a reserve status. In total, the Southern Military District has over 3,000 units in the Black Sea Fleet - more detailed and illustrated information can be found at

https://www.kchf.ru/eng/ship/today_all.htm

The Caspian Flotilla

In the Caspian Sea, too, the latest generation of sea/land-based missiles are carried on board some units, even if there are only a few of them. The flotilla has a total of around 30 units, including minesweepers and artillery boats - here only the newer platforms.

2 modern corvettes (Caspian Sea only)
- Cheetah-class, "Tatarstan" and "Dagestan"; project 11661, 2002/2012, 1,900 tonnes; 8 VLS SS-N-30/3M14.

3 small FK corvettes (newbuildings, water jet propulsion, originally only Caspian Flotilla)
- Buyan-M-class, "Grad Sviyazhsk", "Uglich", "Veliki Ustyug"; project 21631, 2014, 950 tonnes; 8 VLS SS-N-30/3M14.

Summary

As there is no reliable information on either the technical or personnel capabilities of the units listed, it is impossible to estimate how powerful this Black Sea fleet really is. But if you take the more modern units of the Grigorovich-, Bykov-, Buyan- and Aleksandrite- and Kilo-III-classes, then - without wanting to count up every single capability of East against West - the Russian side presents a much more coherent picture with an overwhelmingly powerful armament. If you take into account that the older units can still put a lot of iron in the air, the picture looks much more favourable for Russia than the Russian author of the compilation suggests. Of course, you always need double what you have, but much more important nowadays are the level of training and the completeness of the crews. Particularly in the case of the prestigious newbuildings, one can assume good values here. All in all, a fleet in a marginal sea location, which definitely surpasses the navies of some western industrialised nations in terms of size and armament.

Annex

Sea/land target armament Code name NATO/Russian; range, speed; length, weight; warhead. Details vary.

Sea-target missiles

• SS-N-12B/P-1000, only cruisers of the Slava class
  Sandbox/volcano; 400 nm, Mach 2.5; 12 m, 5 t, 500 kg Hx/350 kt-nuclear capable; up to 8 FK programmable as intelligently controlled salvo.
• SS-N-14, sea target/underwater target FK, only Udaloy and Krivak classes left
  Silex/Rastrub, 25 nm, Mach 0.9; 7 m, 4 t; ASW torpedo/nuclear depth charge.
• SS-N-22/3M82, Tarantul and Dergach class
  Sunburn/Moskit-M; 90 nm, Mach 3; 10 m, 4 t, 320 kg Hx/200 kT nuclear-capable.
• SS-N-27/3M54, Grigorovich and Karakurt class, and Kilo submarines
  Sizzler/Novator; 320 nm/600 km, Mach 0.8/final Mach 3.0; 9 m, 2.3 t; 200 kg Hx, approach with evasive manoeuvres

Land target missile

• SS-N-30/3M14, Bykov, Karakurt, Buyan-M class and Kilo submarines
  Sagaris/Kalibr; 900-1,350 nm / 1,000-2,600 km, Mach 0.8; 9 m, 2.3 t; 450 kg Hx/200 kt-nuclear-capable. Both SS-N-27 and SS-N-30 can be launched from VLS (vertical launch silos).

To clarify:

Hypersonic weapons (SS-N-33/3K22)Tsirkon; 250 nm, Mach 8; 8-11 m, 4-5 t; 400 kg Hx/nuclear-capable) are not known in the Black Sea Fleet, so far only tested on Yasen-class fighter submarine/Project 885 and "Admiral Gorshkov-class/Project 22350.