Russian Warships Exercise Within 34 Miles of Hawaii, Practice Sinking American Carriers

The Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet has carried out manoeuvres far from the country’s shores practicing “the tasks of destroying an aircraft carrier strike group of a mock enemy,” with the fleet’s flagship, the Slava Class cruiser Varyag, simulating cruise missile strikes. This comes as the U.S. continues to drastically expand its military presence in the region. Alongside the Varyag, ships involved in the exercises include the Udaloy Class destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov and several Steregushchiy Class corvettes. The Russian Defense Ministry reported detachments were “worked out the tasks of detecting, countering and delivering missile strikes against an aircraft carrier strike group of a mock enemy.” The United States is notably the only Russian adversary which makes major carrier deployments in the Pacific. Slava Class cruisers are among the heaviest surface combat ships in the world, at 12,500 tons each when fully loaded, and alongside 104 launch cells for S-300 long range and OSA-M short range air defences (64 and 40 respectively), each deploys 16 launchers for massive P-1000 anti ship cruise missiles which are the ships’ primary offensive armaments. The Pacific fleet’s corvettes are capable of deploying more advanced cruise missile types such as the Zicron and Kalibr. 

U.S. Navy Captain Mike Kafka, a spokesperson for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, confirmed that Russian warships are operating between 23 and 34 miles of the Hawaiian Islands during exercises. "At the closest point, some ships operated approximately 20 to 30 NM [nautical miles; 23 to 34 statute miles] off the coast of Hawaii. As part of our normal daily operations, we continue to track all vessels in the Indo-Pacific area of operations through maritime patrol aircraft, surface ship, and joint capabilities,” he stated. The presence of Russian warships has prompted the U.S. to scramble F-22 Raptor stealth fighters on at least two occasions, and to divert an entire U.S. Navy carrier group to the waters off Hawaii. This has served as a strong indication that these unprecedented Russian exercises have been seen as a serious threat. The Russian naval contingent was previously thought to be hundreds of miles away from Hawaii. Captain Kafka did not specify which Russian warships sailed close to Hawaii or when they did so. The Russian Pacific fleet is expected to be prioritised for receipt of new armaments, and will receive at least one of the country’s new assault carriers currently under construction.