About 70 Russian combat ships & 58 aircraft take part in large-scale Baltic Sea drills

About 70 combat ships and support vessels, and 58 aircraft from the Russian Navy and the Russian Aerospace Forces, are taking part in the Ocean Shield 2019 drills in the Baltic Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

The drills will run August 1-9 in the Baltic Sea. “Overall, the drills involve 49 warships and combat craft, 20 support vessels, 58 aircraft of the Navy and the Aerospace Force and 10,634 personnel of the Russian armed forces,” the ministry said.

The military exercises will practice deployment of the navy’s inter-fleet grouping and the skills of commanding the fleet’s forces, TASS reported.

The navy held its first Ocean Shield drills in the Mediterranean Sea in September 2018 which involved 26 combat ships, two submarines, and 34 aircraft from the Russian Navy and the Russian Aerospace Forces.