Putin announces a new naval doctrine that expands the margin of action of the Russian Navy

The new strategy includes the incorporation of hypersonic missiles on warships and new bases in the Pacific and the Mediterranean

July 31 () –

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, announced this Sunday, the National Day of the Russian Navy, a new naval strategic doctrine that will intensify the activities of its ships in the Black and Azov Seas, as well as in the Arctic Ocean, among others and by which state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles will be incorporated into some warships.

The new doctrine has been specifically conceived in the face of the “threat to Russia” represented by “the plans of the United States to dominate the oceans and shipping lines,” according to the document, collected by the Russian news agency Interfax.

To begin with, Russia will increase security in the waters adjacent to the Russian Federation, including the Sea of ​​Azov and the Black Sea — with special intensity in both, where Russia wants to develop a “comprehensive strengthening of its position” — as well as in the eastern Mediterranean and the straits of the Black Sea, Baltic and the Kuril Islands.

Russia also plans to step up maritime activities in the Arctic to increase its ability to respond to “military activity by foreign states in the waters of the Northern Sea Route.”

The document also provides for the expansion of the military infrastructure on the Crimean peninsula, incorporated into Russia, as well as the construction of new aircraft carriers and a system for the incorporation of the state-of-the-art Zirkon hypersonic missile, which will enter service installed on the frigate ‘ Admiral Gorshkov’.

The doctrine also recognizes the lack of Russian bases abroad as a strategic weakness, hence “the Russian Federation plans to build new points to serve the Navy in the Asia-Pacific region and the Mediterranean Sea.”

In other areas less important to Russia, the new naval doctrine will recommend the Navy to use “first and foremost political and legal instruments, mechanisms of diplomacy and other non-violent methods.”