Skip to main content

An OSINT week in Baltiysk: the Nanuchka class upgrades and a sub visit

 OSINT, and especially social media based OSINT, on military installations can be tricky. But some bases are a lot more accessible than others. The Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet is one of the easier ones. Both of the fleets major bases, Baltiysk and Kronstadt, are popular tourist and outdoor locations with people boating, walking, fishing, ice fishing and filming almost all year around. 

An unmodified Nanuchka-class corvette Geyzer and the Swans that hang out along the canal



So what kind of information can be derived from the typical weeks worth of digging through the various social networks? The most obvious fact is that a Russian city can have more nail saloons than residents. When it comes to the military side of things, the first one is the locations of the vessels within the port area. This also allows one to observe the ships that are missing from images. But be warned, some ports have more static berthing than others.

The Zubr-class LAC:s in their special concrete landing pads are the easiest to locate


You can also see the various ships entering than exiting the port and tie these sightings to the various exercise announcements that the Russian MOD and various defense publications do.

Dyugon class landing craft

Tarantul class corvette


Quite often there are also visitors that aren't mentioned in the headlines, like this Kilo-class diesel attack submarine that had a quick two day stop at the Baltiysk.

Kilo class submarine entering Baltiysk

Kilo class submarine leaving Baltiysk


Some of these ships are local ones that regularly patrol the waterways around the base, like the Alexandrit-class minesweepes, RVK-class rescue boats and Parchim-class corvettes. The ASW focused Parchims rarely venture very far.

Parchim class corvette

RBK class rescue boat

Alexandrit-class minesweeper

The most interesting spot of the week was moored right along the popular walkway by the entrance into the harbor. A Nanuchka-class missile boat / corvette Passat was recently on the Baltiysk floating dock receiving unspecified upgrades. It seems that the ship was fitted with PK-10 countermeasure launching system in front of its rear mounted 30mm AK-630 CIWS. The fact that the Russian Navy still invests in the survivability of these old hulls, tells you a low about how far their eventual replacement still is.


Nanuchka class corvettes Passat and Liven
One of Passat's PK-10 Countermeasure launchers

A Buyan-M class corvette on a Baltiysk floating dock


I hope that you enjoyed this brief Baltic Fleet newsflash, more similar posts might happen later on.

Comments

  1. The whole time students search academic documents as a coursework, search work is very important for primary work. When you come to the end of your writing, it would be nothing unless you are a professional or skilled writer. Here we advise you for your coursework help just get some professional editor.

    ReplyDelete
  2. “It’s awesome designed for me to have a web page, which is valuable for my experience.
    토토
    토토
    토토사이트

    ReplyDelete
  3. Internet shopping ends up being increasingly famous. An article from April 2022 represents that Pakistan online vivid shop customers spend rs 5.1 billion in March this year which is rs 82 for each individual. The main quarter of 2022 confronted a 18% expansion contrasted and a similar period last year.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quick guide to identifying the Russian tanks Part 1: Updated Dec. 2021

  As most of the western nations have reduced their inventories to a few or mostly one type of main battle tank model in their active inventories, the myriad of tank platforms and distinct versions employed by the Russian armed forces may feel overwhelming. Here is a quick guide to identifying Russian MBTs. When you come across an image (or the actual thing), follow the steps to identify it properly. Updated 15.12.2021: T-90 modifications Family of the tank Russian Armed Forces currently operates, or at least storage, the following tank platforms/families: -            T-55 (<2000 in storage) -            T-62 (2000 in storage) -            T-64 (2000 in storage) -            T-72 (2000 active duty, 8000 in storage) -            T-80 (2000 active duty, 5000 in storage) -            T-90 (350 active duty, 600  in storage) -            T-14 (20 in field testing) So how can you identify what type of a tank are you looking at? There are two features that can be used to distinguishing th

The Russian ”Tank Circus”

The Russian media has published several articles about the latest round of live fire drills by the Russian tank forces. The first brief mentions caught my attention as they described a new tank tactic based on the experiences of the Russian expeditionary force in Syria.  T-72B1 at Pogonovo (Photo: © RIA Novosti / Andrey Stanavov) The details about the new tactic were scarce but there were mentions of continuous movement and a steady barrage of main gun fire. On 4th of July, the RIA published an in depth article about the 20th combined Arms Army’s field training of the new tactics (Translated to English by Sputnik ) The “Tank Carousel” is simply a drill in which a tanks of a formation, be it a platoon or a company, move around a set perimeter firing the from vantage points or openings in a berm and then move off to safety while another one moves in to the same spot to fire.  This does allow the unit to maintain sustained 125 mm tank gun fire at a target area. Another

Russian Tanks 2022: Thicker and Blinder

  Since the all out invasion of Ukraine the Russian army has lost at least 1700 tanks. This has caused the Russian army some supply problems, when they are re-forming their mauled units. Fighting has also revealed the need for upgrades on most of the Russian tank designs. The most obvious issues with the existing Russian tank fleet are the insufficient armor protection, the lack of reverse mobility and the vulnerability of the automatic loaders and their ammunition carousels. Although the last one has gifted us the sport of Turret Throwing. T-72B obr 2022 tanks Very little can be done for the mobility with the limitations of the existing transmissions and the autoloaders can’t really be replaced with better designs or human loaders either. The armor part on the other hand can be improved during the activation and refurbishment of the deep stored Soviet-era tanks. The first new design that appeared in the battlefield was an upgraded T-72B3 with additional armo,r mimicking the T-90M layo