Russian Navy drills in East China Sea aim to protect oil tankers from air attacks
- Exercises involving destroyer Admiral Panteleyev practise defending oil tankers from potential Western seizure amid sanctions over Ukraine war
- Drills show Russian concern for oil cargo and a willingness to display its advanced air-defence capability, particularly to the US and Japan
Russian destroyer Admiral Panteleyev conducted an exercise in the East China Sea to practise protecting oil tankers from air attacks amid rising tensions with the West over the Ukraine war.
The exercises also follow massive military drills conducted by Russia on disputed islands near Japan and amid rising tensions between the two countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In an exercise in the East China Sea, the crew of the Russian Pacific Fleet’s large anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleyev shielded a medium-sized offshore oil tanker from air strikes by imaginary enemies during an exercise conducted in the East China Sea, Russia’s Sputnik news agency said on Monday, citing an announcement by the Pacific Fleet.
The crew detected and intercepted the enemy’s air electronic target, the report said.
The Admiral Panteleyev is a Russian Navy Udaloy-class destroyer which had left Vladivostok with the tanker for missions in the Asia-Pacific region, the report said. It trained with a Ka-27PS helicopter in the East China Sea late last month, the Russian state news agency reported earlier.
Li Jie, a navy analyst based in Beijing, said the Russian destroyer’s exercise in the East China Sea aimed to increase its capability of countering potential Western interception of its tankers.
