A U.S. official told McClatchy and the Miami Herald on Tuesday that Russia had split up the marine fleet that docked in Havana earlier this month, sending its nuclear underwater up north to the Atlantic and the rest of its vessels south, where they are scheduled to make a port visit in Venezuela.
U. S. and Canadian ships, including ships and Coast Guard cutter, followed the submarine on Tuesday as it traveled back up the Florida coastline — a representation of the ship’s value and its vicinity to U. S. coasts.
A representative from the U.S. Northern Command informed McClatchy that the U.S. Navy continues to closely monitor the movements of the Russian vessels. Their presence in the Western Hemisphere marks the first significant Russian naval deployment there in five years, as well as the first nuclear submarine deployment of its kind since the Cold War’s end.
The Russian flotilla, comprising the missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the nuclear- powered cruise missile submarine Kazan, the oil tanker Pashin and the salvage tug Nikolai Chiker, arrived in Havana last Wednesday, closely tracked by U. S. and Canadian military vessels.
U. S. officials confirmed to McClatchy and the Miami Herald the deployment of three guided- missile destroyers — the USS Truxtun, USS Donald Cook and USS Delbert D. Black— as well as a Coast Guard cutter, the Stone, and a Boeing P- 8 maritime patrol aircraft. They spent several days close to Cuban waters close to Havana.
Prior to this, U.S. officials had previously predicted that Russian ships would visit Venezuela and hold military exercises there.
On their way to Havana, the Russian combat ships and the submarine passed very close to Florida’s shores last Wednesday. One of the Russian vessels was once located less than 30 miles off Key Largo, according to open satellite tracking data.
On Tuesday afternoon, three U. S. warships, including the USS destroyer Truxtun and the Coast Guard cutter Stone, and the Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Québec were positioned close to Miami shores, and later continued moving north close to the Florida coast, according to satellite tracking website , marinetraffic.com.
A fourth Canadian warship, the HMCS Margaret Brook, docked in Havana at the same time as the Russian submarine and frigate, was off West Palm Beach on Tuesday afternoon.
The U.S. military also appeared to have attempted to use unmanned aircraft known as saildrones, a method of monitoring ocean currents and hurricanes, to track the expected fleet’s trajectory. Three of those vessels were found close to Central Cuba on Tuesday morning, according to satellite tracking data. The U.S. Navy recently integrated the submarine tracking technology into the saildrones.
Russian officials and state media have said little about the fleet’s next destination. However, on Monday, Admiral Gorshkov, the commander of the frigate, suggested to the Russian government’s official news agency Tass that the fleet would resume” combat service.”
” We carried out everything that we planned”, said Capt. Pavel Konov. We are prepared to carry out the duties of combat service.
While in Havana, he said the sailors rested, visited a museum dedicated to Cuba’s late ruler Fidel Castro, went to the beach and tried mangoes.
Curious Cubans waited in line for the frigate, which was also toured by CNN and Cuban leader Miguel D’az-Canel.
American, Russian and Cuban officials all played down the visit. Cuba claimed that no nuclear weapons were being carried on Russian warships. Russian deployment is not a threat to the United States, according to American officials, and a Kremlin spokesman said countries should not be concerned about Russian warships in the Western Hemisphere, which he described as a common occurrence.
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