DATELINE: KALININGRAD Aug 23

Rear Admiral Sergei Farkov will soon become the new commander of the Russian Baltic Fleet, a source at the Baltic Fleet staff told Interfax-AVN on Monday.

“An ordinance appointing Rear Admiral Farkov as the Baltic Fleet Commander is ready. The appointment will take place as soon as current Baltic Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov is put in charge of the Pacific Fleet,” he said.

Farkov has been the head of the Baltic Fleet staff since November 2009.

DATELINE: KAZAN Aug 23

The Zelenodolsk Gorky Shipyard will dispatch the second Gepard 3.9 class frigate of Project 11661 to the Vietnamese Navy on Monday evening, the shipyard said.

The first vessel was dispatched in July 2010, and the second vessel was launched in March.

Rosoboronexport signed the contract to build two Gepard 3.9 class frigates for Vietnam in Hanoi on December 22, 2006. The shipyard started to fulfill the contract in July 2007. The contract said that the first ship must be ready within 31 months and the second one within 37 months.

The cost of the contract is unknown.

The Gepard 3.9 class frigate searches for and destroys maritime and aerial targets, performs convoying and reconnaissance missions and protects national economic zones.

DATELINE: MOSCOW Aug 23

Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov who currently commands the Russian Baltic Fleet is set to be appointed as the new commander of the Pacific Fleet, a Russian Defense Ministry source told Interfax-AVN on Monday.

“A submission has been prepared appointing Vice Admiral Chirkov as the Pacific Fleet commander. The appointment itself is expected within two or three weeks,” the source said.

His replacement as Baltic Fleet commander is “currently being discussed,” the source said.

The Defense Ministry has not yet confirmed this report.

The current Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral Konstantin Sidenko, was earlier appointed to head the operative strategic command Vostok in the Russian Far East.

DATELINE: MOSCOW Aug 25

Russia plans to hand over the nuclear submarine the Nerpa to the Indian Navy under a lease contract before the end of the year, a source in the Russian Pacific Fleet told Interfax-AVN.

“The submarine the Nerpa is now being tested in the Sea of Japan as part of the transfer arrangements. The trials will be completed by the end of autumn. The submarine with an Indian crew on board is expected to head to one of India’s naval bases in December,” the source said.

Both Russian and Indian sailors are currently working aboard the submarine, he said.

“The Indian crew is being trained to handle the vessel,” he said.

DATELINE: MOSCOW Aug 26

The Russian Navy’s main staff will remain based in Moscow, a source in the Russian Naval Command told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.

“The relocation of the Navy’s Main Staff to St. Petersburg has been put off indefinitely. The efforts have been focused now on the radical optimization of its structures that are to be completed before the end of the year,” he said.

But he noted that the group of staff officers, who moved to St.

Petersburg at the start of the year, will remain headquartered at the Admiralty building and will operate as the Main Command’s representatives. The headquarters have an office for Naval Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, who regularly visits St. Petersburg, he said.

“A compact control structure is currently being formed which, while being based in St. Petersburg, will be located in the maximum vicinity of the fleet,” the source said.

A high-placed source in the Main Naval Command earlier told Interfax-AVN that the relocation of individual structures and control bodies of the Navy has been made and that the relocation will be completed in 2012.

In analyst’s estimate, the price of the relocation could be 50 billion rubles.

The idea of moving the Navy’s Main Staff to St. Petersburg was first proposed by State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, who said, “St.Petersburg is Russia’s naval capital.”

DATELINE: ST.PETERSBURG Aug 12

The destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov of Russia’s Northern Fleet has left the dock of the Severnaya Verf shipyard to be prepared for the next round of tests in the Baltic Sea.

“The entire load of dock work has been done, and malfunctions uncovered during the testing in the Gulf of Finland have been fixed.

Preparations have begun for the second stage of testing in the Baltic Sea,” a source in the management of the Severnaya Verf shipyard told Interfax.

The first phase in the testing ended on June 5. The main tests of the basic air defense missile system will start in the North after the customer, the Russian Navy, approves the outcome of the testing in the Baltic Sea, the source said.

The United Aircraft Corporation earlier told Interfax that the destroyer’s air defense missile system and other technical facilities were completely upgraded during the repairs and the life support systems were replaced, which created much more comfortable conditions for the crew.

DATELINE: ST. PETERSBURG Aug 13

Designers working on new Russian submarines are paying special attention to crew rescue systems.

“Work is under way and the submarines that are under construction and are being designed will be equipped with modern rescue systems guaranteeing the crew’s safe return to surface from a breakdown submarine,” Igor Baranov, general designer at the Rubin naval equipment design bureau, said, commenting on the conclusions drawn by designers and the Russian Navy command from the accident with the Kursk nuclear submarine 10 years ago.

He said that the nuclear submarines of the new generation Alexander Nevsky and Yury Dolgoruky are equipped with fundamentally new rescue complexes comprising valve systems, mechanisms and control systems. They will also be installed in all new and upgraded submarines.

“We had to make such a sacrifice as the 118 men on the Kursk for the decision makers to realize that you can build the hardware but cannot return a human life,” Baranov said.

Ten submarines of the Antei project were built in 1986-1994. K-141 Kursk was the last in the series. It sank during North Fleet exercises on August 12, 2000 in the Barents Sea. All its 118 crewmembers perished.

DATELINE: MOSCOW Aug 9

Another test launch of the Bulava submarine-launched inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) that was scheduled for mid-August has been postponed by at least two weeks, a source in the Russian defense industry told journalists on Monday.

“The launch has been postponed by two or three weeks. The State Commission held no meeting on this matter,” the source said, without giving the cause of the postponement.

This year’s first and the 13th consecutive test launch of the Bulava was due to take place between August 11 and 14. The State Commission was due to make the final decision on August 9.

DATELINE: MOSCOW July 26

Several ships of the Russian Baltic Fleet could be given to the Black Sea Fleet, a Russian defense official told Interfax-AVN on Sunday.

“We do not rule out transferring one or two BF patrol ships to the Black Sea Fleet,” the official said.

One of the reasons for that is to enable Russia to perform its missions in the Mediterranean Sea, he said.

DATELINE: KALININGRAD July 16

So far there are no plans to transfer the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet from Kaliningrad, where it is currently located, to St. Petersburg, deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee and former Kaliningrad Mayor Yury Savenko said.

“The talk of the possible transfer of the fleet’s headquarters to St. Petersburg is a groundless rumor. There is no need for such a decision today,” he said.

Meanwhile, a source at the Baltic Fleet’s headquarters told Interfax that there will be no transfer until orders are received from the Defense Ministry as was the case with the Chief of Staff of the Navy.

The source did not rule out the possibility that similar orders may be received in Kaliningrad.