Original I am Ivan the Great
From October 14 to 17, the Chinese and Russian navies held a joint military exercise code-named "Maritime Joint-2021" at the berth of Peter the Great Bay near the Russian Pacific Fleet, which practiced a number of advanced tactical subjects such as joint maneuvering of formations and achieved a complete success.
Surprisingly, the day after the exercise, at noon on October 18, Japanese people photographed the sino-Russian combined naval fleet passing through the Tsugaru Strait between Hokkaido and Honshu Island. Subsequently, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force also issued an official announcement confirming the entry of the Chinese and Russian navies into the Pacific, and attached photos of all the ships of the two armies to the announcement.
Announcement issued by the Japanese side
According to the announcement issued by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the combined fleet of the Chinese and Russian navies that sailed through the Tsugaru Strait this time consisted of a total of ten ships:
In the Chinese Navy, it includes the Type 055 large destroyer No. 101 "Nanchang", the Type 052D destroyer No. 172 "Kunming" ship, the Type 054A frigate Type 573 "Liuzhou" ship, the No. 515 "Binzhou" ship, and the Type 903A fast fleet supply ship No. 902;
On the Russian Navy side, it includes the Type 1155 large anti-submarine ship No. 548 "Admiral Panterev", the 564 "Admiral Tributs" ship, the Type 20380 frigate Type 335 "Loud" ship and the Type 339 "Russian hero Ardar. The Ship Oferzapov, in addition to the space survey ship Krylov, is very powerful.
The scale of the operation
In a comprehensive evaluation, Ivan the Great believes that the joint fleet of the Chinese and Russian navies in the direction of the Pacific Ocean through the Tsugaru Strait has reached the highest level in the past year, both in terms of mode of action and in the scale of dispatch:
The Tsugaru Strait has a special geographical location
The first is the mode of action, in fact, the Tsugaru Strait as the main front of the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet out of the Pacific Channel, there are Russian naval ships in and out is a relatively normal thing, in the Cold War period, the Red Navy Grand Fleet has made many larger moves than this Sino-Russian combined fleet; and the Chinese Navy, although it has not known enough about the direction of the North Pacific for a long time, there are not many actions, but since 2018, the Chinese fleet has also begun to appear near the Tsugaru Strait, even if it was not long ago, the Chinese Navy has just done it "Tour around Japan". However, as the Chinese and Russian navies coordinated, organized a joint fleet, and sailed through the Tsugaru Strait, it is needless to say that during the Cold War, this was the first time after the end of the Cold War, which can be said to have created a new record of joint operations and joint tactical tasks between the Navies of China and Russia, and its political significance is very strong.
From the perspective of the scale of dispatch, the size of the 10 ships of the Chinese and Russian navies needless to say, and Ivan the Great wants to emphasize that the Chinese and Russian armies entered the Pacific Sea with a fighting posture this time. Judging from the formation of the combined fleet of the two armies photographed by the Japanese people, the Chinese and Russian navies used the standard ring-shaped evacuation formation:
In front of the formation were two anti-submarine ships of the Russian army, Admiral Tributs and Admiral Pandelev; followed by the Chinese Navy's "Nanchang" ship, the Russian Navy's "Krylov" and the Chinese Navy's 902 supply ship; on the side of the formation were the Chinese Navy's "Kunming" ship, and on the left and right sides of the formation were the Chinese Navy's two general frigates "Liuzhou" and "Binzhou", and finally the Russian Navy's "Loud" and "" and "" Russian hero Ardar. Zidenzapov".
It was a fairly standard, tactical formation of maritime campaign tactics consisting of formation outpost ships, formation flankers, left and right winged ships of formation, left and right rearguards of formation, and high-value formation core ships.
The significance of this operation
Since this is the first time that the Navies of China and Russia have adopted the form of a joint fleet and sailed through the Tsugaru Strait into the Pacific Ocean, the strategic and tactical significance of this operation is worthy of our consideration.
Strategic
Ivan the Great believes that the joint operation of the Chinese and Russian navies, especially the operation of the Chinese and Russian navies in a combat formation and through the narrow Tsugaru Strait, is itself a powerful political declaration to some of the extraterritorial powers that are not very peaceful and the regional powers that have recently been stirring up trouble.
Tsugaru Strait
After all, on the one hand, a certain extra-territorial power and a certain regional power have just done things in the southern part of the South China Sea, thousands of miles away, in the early part of this month, and this time they dispatched three large fleet aircraft carriers, "CarlVinson", "Reagan", and "Queen", and "Ise" light aircraft carriers, and formed a powerful "four-aircraft carrier battle group" out. At the same time, the attack nuclear submarine of a foreign power also had an underwater collision accident in the central waters of the South China Sea, although the cause of this accident is still unclear, but it shows that the country's increasingly rampant underwater warfare activities in the South China Sea are very obvious. In addition to these extraterritorial powers, a certain regional power has not been very peaceful recently, not only calling for "doubling" the proportion of military expenditure in GDP in the long run, but also preparing to introduce the deployment of medium-range strategic missiles from extraterritorial powers and continuously "strategically touching the line."
Therefore, since the extraterritorial powers can "jump to the outer line" and rely on the "front-end deployment" to form a relatively large strategic pressure on us, and since the regional powers dare to "continuously touch the line" and try to change the current unfavorable strategic situation, then from a strategic point of view, of course, we can also "jump out of the internal line" and jump to the outside line to make a strong strategic declaration of these extraterritorial powers; of course, we can also "deploy in front" tit-for-tat, by using the form of a large fleet approaching the mainland of a regional power and even sailing around the island. To effectively counter the cross-line behavior of a regional power, this kind of action strategy is to "come and go without being rude".
Japan's Four "International Shipping Routes" (Source: Panoramic Historical Geography)
It is worth noting that judging from the course of action of the combined naval fleets of China and Russia, in fact, there are three operational channels for the Russian Pacific Fleet to exit the Pacific Ocean: one is to go south from the Tsushima Strait, the Miyako Strait or the Osumi Strait to the east; the second is to exit from the Tsugaru Strait between Hokkaido and Honshu; and the third is to exit from the Soya Strait between Sakhalin Island and Hokkaido. Among the three operational channels, the best tactical concealment is the Soya Strait, after all, the width of the Tsugaru Strait is too narrow, only tens of kilometers, and the naval fleet can distinguish the type and number of ships with the naked eye when sailing in it, while the Soya Strait is wide, and the fleet can rely on the cover of Sakhalin Island and the autumn fog in the northern part of the Sea of Japan to achieve concealment.
So, why did the Chinese and Russian navies not go through the Sogu Strait, which has the strongest concealment, the best navigation conditions, and the relatively wide sea area, but must sail through the Tsugaru Strait, which is extremely easy to be discovered by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and can be photographed with a camera, almost waving through the door of people.For the reason, Ivan the Great believes that everyone has his own experience.
In a tactical sense, Ivan the Great thinks there are three points worth talking about:
First, the significance of the Soya Strait, the Tsugaru Strait and the Okhotsk Sea Fortress Area to the Chinese Navy, in fact, this issue Ivan the Great has said many times before, compared with the United States and Japan and other countries battlefield construction is extremely complete, all kinds of surface warfare, underwater warfare, shore-based combat forces are quite strong, the Grand Fleet action is extremely easy to be discovered Miyako Strait, Bashi Strait and so on.
Going out of the Sea of Japan to waiting in the sea area of the Okhotsk Sea Fortress, making sufficient feints and then suddenly coming out of the North Pacific is an effective "solution" for the Chinese Navy, which is limited by geographical factors and has a tactical surprise and a lack of tactical concealment in the operation of the Great Fleet. This is also partly evidenced by the Enthusiasm of the Chinese Navy for the North Pacific, the Tsugaru Strait and the Soya Strait in recent years.
After all, from the first point of view, the Chinese naval fleet wants to ensure the existence of the sea area in the Sea fortress of the Sea of Okhotsk, and it is unrealistic without the assistance of the Russian Navy and the chinese naval and air forces to serve in this sea area.
Judging from the situation of the "Maritime Joint-2021" exercise, including the situation in the Tsugaru Strait before the joint fleet of the Chinese and Russian navies, the Russian Navy is still very interesting, not only sending half of the large anti-submarine ship force of the Pacific Fleet to assist the Chinese Navy in the operation, but also seems to allow the Chinese Navy fixed-wing anti-submarine aircraft to enter the exercise area (only news, but no picture). Therefore, according to comprehensive analysis, the actions of the Chinese Navy in the northwest Pacific Ocean can be described as promising, and there should be room for further improvement in the coordination between the Chinese and Russian navies at the tactical level.
Shemiya Air Force Base (Source: Google Earth)
The third is a direct threat to the main imaginary enemy outpost positions, about 1500 nautical miles from the Soya Strait and the Tsugaru Strait to reach Shemia Island, the first outer island of the Aleutian Island Chain, which, despite its small size, has a runway of about 3,000 meters in length, which is enough to operate medium and large bombers such as B-21 in wartime. In addition, the most important thing on the island is the farthest forward deployment position of the U.S. missile defense system, with the only advanced AN/FPS-108 "Danish Cobra" large land-based phased array radar deployed by the United States. This is also an important factor why the US military seemed so nervous when the Chinese navy approached the exclusive economic zone of the Aleutian Islands some time ago, and even when it was still far away from Alaska.
AN/FPS-108 radar deployed on Shemiah Island
With the increasing activities of the Chinese and Russian navies in the North Pacific, it is estimated that this ability to approach the outpost of the US national missile defense system and even use tactical forces to directly "pull out" this strategic nail at critical moments will make it more and more difficult for the US military to sleep. This is the most direct tactical gain of the Former Deutsugaru Strait between the Chinese and Russian navies.
In short, Ivan the Great has only four words for the actions of the Chinese and Russian navies out of the Tsugaru Strait before: well done. Not only should we do this, but in the long run, it is better for the Chinese navy to appear more and more in the North Pacific and avoid the central and south Pacific waters where the US military has set up heavy troops.