page_title: Northern Fleet
section_title: Russian Navy
hierarchical_section_title: Northern Fleet / History / Russian Navy
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Фрегат «Адмирал флота Советского Союза Горшков» в составе отряда кораблей Северного флота во время перехода из Североморска в Кронштадт для участия в Главном военно-морском параде. English: Admiral Gorshkov Russian frigate
context_page_description: The Northern Fleet is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Arctic.
  Established in 1933 by the Soviet Union as the Northern Flotilla, the fleet historically descends from the Russian Imperial Arctic Sea Flotilla established in 1916 to protect the White Sea during World War I. It was developed into a full fleet of the Soviet Navy in the 1930s, and after being awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1965, it was officially known as the Red Banner Northern Fleet. During the Soviet era the Northern Fleet operated more than 200 submarines, ranging from diesel-electric to nuclear-powered ballistic missile classes. The Northern Fleet is tasked with responsibility for operations and defense in the Arctic seas along Northern Russia, including the Barents Sea and Kara Sea, as well as the northwestern maritime approaches to Russia including the Norwegian Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
  The Northern Fleet's headquarters and main base are located in Severomorsk, Murmansk Oblast, with secondary bases elsewhere in the greater Kola Bay area.
context_section_description: The 57th Naval Missile Aviation Division of Tu-22s and electronic warfare Tu-16s from the Baltic Fleet at Bykhov, Mogilev Oblast, in the Belorussian SSR transferred to the Northern Fleet in December 1991 as the 57th Combined Ship Aviation Division. The division commanded the 830th and 38th Shipborne Anti-Submarine Helicopter Regiments and the 279th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment from Severomorsk-3 in Murmansk Oblast until disbanded on 1 May 1998. The 5th Naval Missile Aviation Division commanding the 524th and 574th Naval Missile Aviation Regiments.  The 574th Regiment was based at Lakhta air base (Katunino), until disbanded in 2002.
  In February 1993, the 100th Independent Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment was disbanded and its personnel and equipment absorbed by the 279th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment.
  On 12 August, 2000, the Kursk submarine disaster gained international attention when the Oscar-class submarine Kursk of the Northern Fleet perished in a torpedo accident during exercises in the Barents Sea near Murmansk Oblast, resulting in the deaths of 118 sailors. 
  The Northern Fleet includes about two-thirds of all the Russian Navy's nuclear-powered ships.  The flagship  Kirov-class battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy is named after Peter the Great.  The Fleet staged a series of major Barents Sea exercises in January 2004 involving thirteen ships and seven submarines including Pyotr Velikiy, Admiral Kuznetsov, with President Vladimir Putin was aboard the Typhoon class ballistic missile submarine Arkhangelsk.  The exercise was marred by two RSM-54 SLBM launch failures aboard Novomoskovsk and Kareliya.
  In January 2016, Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu announced that the 45th Air Force and Air Defence Army had been formed under control of the Northern Fleet in December 2015. Its territorial control center assumed combat duty in July 2018.
  The Northern Fleet received the Samarkand electronic warfare systems in 2017. Samarkand is designed to assess electromagnetic situation, search, detect and analyze radio emissions. Russia's Northern Fleet in 2018 resumed regular air patrols of the Arctic by long-range anti-submarine aircraft and its share of modern samples of weapons and equipment exceeded 56 percent. An air defense regiment of the Northern fleet armed with S-400 launchers went on combat duty in Novaya Zemlya in the September 2019.
  A tank battalion of a Northern Fleet separate motorized infantry brigade has received the final batch of 26 T-80BVM tanks and completed the rearmament procedure in November 2019.
caption: Ships of the Northern Fleet
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