The fleet was first established by the Soviet Navy in 1963–64, originally intended for the power projection in the Middle East through the Mediterranean Sea during the Cold War between two superpowers— the Soviet Union and the United States. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in general usually referred to the squadron as the Soviet Mediterranean Fleet (Russian: Средиземноморский флот) since it was indeed such for all intents and purposes, facing the combat adversary with the U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet in the region. Attached to the Russian Navy after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 5th Squadron was deactivated due to downsizing of the Russian Armed Forces on 31 December 1992. Perceiving threats from the planned American' missile defense shield in Poland in 2009–10 and the American-led NATO's armed intervention in Syria in 2011, Russia reactivated the 5th Squadron in 2013 to support its war efforts in a bid of saving President Bashar al-Assad's presidency in Syria.