The Russian KA-27 is specially designed to detect and destroy enemy submarines, making it a formidable aircraft for NATO forces stationed near Russia’s military in the Baltic region. (MAIQUEL TORCATT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Russian helicopters on Wednesday staged explosive exercises, destroying maritime targets in the already tense Baltic region, where the U.S. began its own multinational war games just one day earlier.
The Russian military deployed 10 Kamov KA-27 antisubmarine warfare helicopters from the naval aviation branch of its Baltic Fleet to participate in bombing a simulated hostile submarine off the coast of Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russian territory situated between Lithuania and Poland. Both of these countries, along with the Baltic states Latvia and Estonia, are part of the U.S.-led military alliance NATO, which on Tuesday launched a regional exercise called Tobruq Legacy 2017, involving multiple European allies of the U.S. As the rivalry between Russia and NATO heats up, both displayed the readiness and might of their respective armed forces.
“According to the drills’ scenario, an enemy submarine reconnoitering the fleet’s naval group has been detected in a combat training range in the Baltic Sea. The crews of the Ka-27 PL antisubmarine warfare helicopters have spotted the submarine and determined its coordinates with the help of radar systems and sonars,” Baltic Fleet spokesperson Roman Martov told the state-run TASS Russian News Agency.
“The submarine—a specially imitated underwater target—has been destroyed by air bombs,” he added.
Full article: Russian Military bombs ‘Enemy Submarine’ in Drills Near U.S. War Games (Newsweek)
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