Caspian Flotilla successfully secures Russia

Dagestan is hosting exercises of the Caspian Flotilla devoted to working out actions for defense with the assistance of electronic services of ships and aircraft.

During the exercises the small missile ship 'Dagestan' successfully repelled an airstrike of an imaginary enemy. The exercise was also attended by four tactical reconnaissance aircraft Su-24 MR. The crews successfully repelled the attack of the enemy, the representative of the district said, adding that the horizon radar station 'Sunflower' was involved in the exercises.

The chief editor of 'National Defense' magazine, Igor Korotchenko, told Vestnik Kavkaza that "the Caspian Flotilla is an important element of the security of the southern borders of Russia and maintaining the stability of the regime in the Caspian region." "Therefore, in recent years, the Russian Defense Ministry paid very close attention to the Caspian Flotilla. In general, we have potential strength that is powerful enough to reliably provide our security," he concluded.

The editor-in-chief of 'Military-Industrial Courier' and the magazine 'Aerospace Defense', Michael Khodarenok, told a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that "previously, the Caspian Flotilla was based in Baku. There were all the necessary conditions for the maintenance of ships, for the repair of ships, all the necessary living conditions for officers. But due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, it had to be displaced to the port of Astrakhan, which is completely unsuitable for this purpose. And the mid-1990s, and even the early 2000s, were not easy times for the Caspian Flotilla. And the combat and numerical composition of the fleet in the mid-1990s was of purely symbolic value, there were no more than 6 combat-capable ships," the expert reminded.

"But now it has changed radically, great efforts to improve the infrastructure, the deployment of ships of the Caspian Flotilla were made. It was expanded with new ships, missiles and artillery, it is radically changing the balance of forces and means in the Caspian Sea. And now the Caspian Flotilla is a combat-ready compound, which is capable of solving operational combat missions in the Caspian Sea," Michael Khodarenok summed up.