World Ocean Exercises 2024
Russia launched the biggest naval drills in its modern history, President Vladimir Putin announced 10 September 2024. The ‘Ocean-2024’ exercise was expected to be held simultaneously in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans as well as the Mediterranean, Caspian and Baltic Seas. The aim of the drills is to assess the combat readiness of the Russian Navy and the Air Force, as well as to check their interoperability, Putin said as he joined the opening of the exercise via video link. The maneuvers involve more than 400 warships and submarines as well as auxiliary vessels, some 120 aircraft and over 90,000 personnel.
The Ocean 2024 aims to verify the navy key personnel to manage diverse groups of forces within their areas of responsibility, including solving non-standard operational challenges, the integrated use of precision weapons, as well as advanced and modern equipment. Another objective is to expand cooperation with the navies of partner countries to solve joint tasks at sea. The exercise is set to include complex operations involving simulated launches of high-precision weapons, Putin said at a meeting that was attended by Defense Minister Andrey Belousov. The drills would employ the experience the Russian troops had gained during the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the president said.
The Chinese military are also taking part in the Russian drills. Four vessels and 15 aircraft of the People’s Liberation Army Navy joined the exercises, the head of the Russian Navy, Admiral Aleksandr Moiseev, said. Representatives from 15 other nations were also invited to the drills as observers, according to Putin. Moscow plans to “pay special attention to strengthening military cooperation with friendly nations,” the Russian president said. Such cooperation gains “particular importance against the background of the growing geopolitical tensions,” he added.
Washington is “trying to maintain its global military and political dominance at any cost,” Putin warned. The US is using Ukraine in a bid to inflict a strategic defeat upon Moscow, but America and its “satellites” have also built up a military presence in Europe, the Arctic and the Pacific under the pretext of “containing” Russia and China, he said.
According to the president, Washington and its allies openly speak about their plans to deploy short and medium-range missiles to the islands in the Western Pacific and to some nations located in the region. “The US seeks to get a sizable military advantage through its aggressive actions and thus break the existing security architecture and the balance of power,” the Russian leader warned, adding that such actions “provoke the arms race.”
“Russia must be ready for any potential scenario,” the president said, adding that the armed forces should provide reliable security to both Russia’s sovereignty and its national interests. The Russian Defense Ministry published several videos of the Ocean-2024 drills. The clips feature ‘Oniks’ and ‘Uran’ cruise missiles being launched from mobile coastal ‘Bastion’ and ‘Bal’ missile systems. Oniks supersonic missiles are capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 800 kilometers and can travel at almost three times the speed of sound.
The Russian Navy's Caspian Flotilla struck a mock enemy target during the Ocean 2024 maritime exercise on Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said 11 September 2024. "As part of the Ocean 2024 strategic command and staff exercise, crews of the Dagestan missile ship and the Astrakhan and Volgodonsk small artillery ships from the Caspian Flotilla worked together as a naval tactical group to destroy a floating mine that posed a threat to civilian shipping. The target was hit by heavy machine gun fire," the statement read.
During the large-scale strategic exercise OKEAN-24 conducted by the Russian Navy, Russia likely exaggerated the number of ships involved, with the exercise primarily serving as a demonstration of the fleet’s capabilities amid the ongoing war. This was reported 19 October 2024 by the UK Ministry of Defense, citing intelligence data. It is noted that this event followed a two-year pause in Russia’s large-scale military exercises. Prior to 2022, Russia used to hold annual exercises involving all its armed forces, but the last two have been canceled almost certainly due to the war in Ukraine, according to the statement.
“OKEAN-24 was likely an effort to demonstrate reach and capability in spite of the war,” the intelligence sources believe. They added that Russian media claimed the exercise would involve over 400 ships, 120 aircraft, 7,000 vehicles, and 90,000 personnel conducting operations in the Barents, Baltic, Mediterranean, and Caspian Seas, as well as in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. “The exercises did operate in these areas, but Russia has almost certainly grossly exaggerated these figures as there are currently only around 300 vessels available to take part. No OKEAN-24 activity took place in the Black Sea, highly likely because of Ukrainian attacks in the first six months of 2024,” the British intelligence reported.
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