The crew of the Northern Fleet major ASW ship Vice Admiral Kulakov accomplished all the episodes of the Arabian Monsoon-2015 international exercise on countering drug trafficking, says press center of RF Defence Ministry. Then the ship entered the Pakistani port of Karachi.
The drill lasted for 2 days in the northern area of the Arabian Sea. Apart from the Northern Fleet seamen, the Russian Federal Drug Control Service units and the Pakistani Navy Special Operations Forces participated in the drill’s episodes.
Both Russian and Pakistani combat ships, major ASW ship Vice Admiral Kulakov, destroyer Hairab and corvette Vehdat, operated within a joint tactical group, searching for alleged narcotic-trafficking ships.
The surface picture data was transmitted to the ships by the Pakistani maritime security agency airplane Defender.
One of the main drill’s practical episodes was the inspection of a simulated non-compliant vessel. The operation was conducted by the Russian Federal Drug Control Service and the Pakistani Maritime Security Agency units.
Marines of the Northern Fleet on speedboats with the support of Ka-27 helicopter effectuated the fire covering of the Special Task Force groups.
The Exercise Commanders from the Russian and Pakistani parties have highly appreciated the joint actions of the navy sailors and members of counter drug trafficking services. They expressed their readiness for further cooperation and holding of joint exercises on ensuring security at sea.
Arabian Monsoon-2015 has become the first international exercise for the major ASW ship Vice Admiral Kulakov in 2015. The ship departed from Severomorsk for the long-range cruise on October 23. She has already covered about 9,000 nautical miles.