The Northern Fleet of Russian
Federation is headquartered at Severomorsk, at the top of the Kolsky
Peninsula near Murmansk, with additional home ports at Kolsky, Motovsky,
Gremikha, and Ura Guba. The mission of the Northern Fleet is to defend Russia’s
far northwestern Arctic region surrounding the Kolsky Peninsula. The fleet
provides home ports for thirty-seven nuclear submarines, twenty-two other
submarines, forty-seven principal surface combatants, and ten coastal and
smaller ships. The naval aviation contingent includes twenty SU-39 fixed-wing
aircraft and ten antisubmarine warfare helicopters on board of the Admiral
Kuznetsov

, which heads the air defense of
the Barents Sea. Shore-based naval aviation includes
200 combat aircraft and sixty-four helicopters. The Northern Fleet has
two naval
infantry brigades, one coastal defense regiment, and an air defense missile
regiment…