– USNI News – Russian surveillance ship Viktor Leonov has been operating unsafely off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina in the vicinity of U.S. naval bases, according to a U.S. Coast Guard safety bulletin issued on Sunday.

– Barents Observer – Painted in the Russia’s flag’s tricolor, the new «Arktika» sailed out to the Gulf of Finland on Thursday for a two-days test voyage.

– Barents Observer – The fire on “Admiral Kuznetsov” at yard No. 35 started during welding work in one of the engine rooms. The fire is not under control.

– Barents Observer – President Putin assembles his top military aides to discuss the development of the Navy and Northern Fleet.

– BMPD – On November 25, 2019, the flag was solemnly hoisted on the large submarine B-274 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky of project 636.3 (serial number 01614) , built by Admiralty Shipyards JSC in St. Petersburg for the Pacific Fleet.

(Thanks to Alain)

– The Barents Observer – The Admiral Kasatonov is to be officially included in the Russian Navy in the course of 2019.

– Ynet – A Russian submarine was spotted in Israel’s territorial waters, near central Israel, three months ago.

(Thanks to Alain)

– War Zone – The Ivan Papanin, the first of the Project 23550 icebreaking warships, is our first look at Russia’s specialized Arctic naval force.

– Barents Observer – Knyaz Vladimir is Russia’s new Borei-class sub, a nuclear-powered ballistic vessel that can carry up to 16 Bulava missiles. Over the last weeks, it has been undergoing testing in northern waters and in late October test-fired its first Bulava. The submarine has now also tested its torpedoes.

– BMPD – According to the web resource Mil.Press FlotProm , two multipurpose patrol icebreakers of project 23550 will be built for the FSB border control department of Russia.

(Thanks to Alain!)

– BMPD – On October 25, 2019, the Admiralty Shipyards JSC (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation JSC) in St. Petersburg hosted the launch ceremony of the project’s Ivan Papanin, a multi-purpose ice class patrol ship under construction for the Russian Navy, project 23550 (code “Arctic”) with the serial number 02460.

(Thanks to Alain!)

– Barents Observer – At least eight nuclear-powered submarines sailed out from their homeports on the Kola Peninsula last week, the Norwegian military intelligence says to NRK.

– National Interest – Where the Russian navy is all but abandoning the production of new aircraft carriers, cruisers and other “blue-water” surface warships, it has recommitted to sustaining a large fleet of big, long-range submarines. Why?

– National Interest – For all of the analysis concerning the real dangers posed by ‘carrier-killer’ weapons being developed by China and now Iran, one thing remains constant: hitting a moving target in the vast expanses of the open oceans of the world is not easy.

– Russian Military Reform – The Mediterranean will play a key role in Russian naval strategy because of its strategic significance as an access point to southern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. For Russia, the Mediterranean symbolizes the larger competition between Moscow and Washington.

– Forbes – The Russian Navy is expected to be the first country to field hypersonic cruise missiles on its submarines, potentially giving it some strategic advantages in naval warfare.

(Thanks to Alain)

– Covert Shores – Fresh satellite imagery recently made available on Google Earth confirms that Russian Navy’s Beluga Whale pens have been moved to a stable position near the entrance of the Olenya Guba (Оленья Губа) secret submarine base near the Kola Peninsula. These pens were most likely involved in the whale which turned up in Norway in May. Additionally they confirm that the special mission host submarine BS-64 Podmoskovye returned to its home base of Olenya Guba very shortly after the Losharik submarine accident on July 1st.

(Thanks to Alain)

– National Interest – Will Moscow have the funds to keep an elite force under the waves?

– War on the Rocks – America’s strategy community has a problem that it likes to call “A2/AD,” and while the symptoms are very real, in the case of Russia strategists and planners have largely misdiagnosed the nature of the challenge.

– National Interest – Carrier advocates will often make the dubious claim that a couple of missiles or even a torpedo could not actually sink these hulking ships. Perhaps not, but please try to imagine the armada that would have to be assembled to rescue a disabled ship of this stature.

– National Interest – Envious but also dubious.

– BMPD – The first in the series large diesel-electric submarine B-274 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (serial number 01614) of project 06363, built by Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg Petersburg for the Pacific Fleet, went to factory sea trials in the Baltic Sea from St. Petersburg.

(Thanks to Alain)

– War on the Rocks – American national security analysts and practitioners would be well advised to follow who is rising to the senior ranks of the Russian military.

– War Zone – New information is trickling out about the harrowing incident that killed 14 decorated submariners as Russia moves to make the sub serviceable again.

– Guardian – A malfunctioning lithium-ion battery may have sparked a deadly fire on a top-secret Russian nuclear submersible earlier this month that killed 14 naval officers.