The crews of the ships allegedly perform single and combined artillery and missile firings against naval, maritime and air targets throughout the week.

The Black Sea Fleet sailors will also practice elements of marine training, including joint deployment and maneuvering in different sections.

The training period also included a tour of the ships in Sevastopol for the first time, where the commander of the Black Sea Fleet inspected the organization of ships on a communications boat as he reviews the readiness of the forces to carry out assigned missions. It follows a show of force in April that involved training and live-fire drills against simulated targets. In the Black Sea, the patrol ship Vasily Bykov and the small anti-submarine warships Kasmov and Yeisk conducted exercises to search for and capture a notional, or possible, enemy submarine.

Since 1783 the Black Sea Fleet had existed in one form or another. It was created to support the campaigns of Imperial Russia against the Ottoman Empire while the Fleet battled Axis forces during the sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol during the Second World War.

Since Russian ships are expected to reach the Mediterranean via the Turkish-controlled Bosporus Strait — and will be limited to the Black Sea in the case of a NATO-Russia dispute, the Black Sea Fleet has only a few large ships for blue water operations.

Maritime Business World