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| Science & Technology |
| Eastern European Navies Expand as Russian Occupation of Ukraine Drags On |
| 2023-07-22 |
| By: Tim Fish [USNI] The launch of the Ada-class corvette, Hetman Ivan Mazepa, for the Ukrainian Navy. The Ada-class corvettes were first developed for the Turkish Navy under its MILGEM program and have four ships in service. Office of the President of Ukraine Eastern European countries continue to bolster their naval forces prompted by Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. Even with small coastlines and limited operations in the confined waters of the Baltic and Black Seas, the maritime domain is a major factor for national security, experts say. Most Eastern European states have naval forces “that tended to reflect more direct defense rather than power projection, and also the fact that their access to the maritime domain is through the largely enclosed waterways of the Baltic and Black Seas (and in Ukraine’s case the Sea of Azov),” Nick Childs, senior fellow for Naval Forces and Maritime Security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told USNI News in an interview. Force structures have historically centered on coastal defense and patrol capabilities, Childs said. The Russo-Ukraine War sparked increased defense spending across Europe. While much of this additional funding has focused on air and land systems procurement, concerns about the Russian threat have seen increases in naval capability ambitions too, Childs said. Read the rest at the link |
| Posted by:badanov |