Russian, Chinese warships increase operations near Japan

USNI news: Japan tracked several Russian and Chinese warships sailing on separate voyages near Japanese waters over the last week and tracked a Chinese Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and a Chinese Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) operating around its southwest region on Monday.

Among the ships tracked was a Russian Navy Pacific Fleet detachment on a patriotic tour of the Russian Far East that was returning to its home port of Vladivostok.

Japan’s Joint Staff Office (JSO) said on Tuesday at 11 a.m., Russian Navy destroyer RFS Admiral Panteleyev (548), corvette RFS Sovershennyy (333), amphibious tank landing ship RFS Oslyabya (066) and minesweeper Anatoly Shlemov (757) were sighted sailing west in an area 18 miles north of Cape Soya on the main island of Hokkaido.

The Russian ships then sailed west through La Perouse Strait, which separates Hokkaido from Russia’s Sakhalin Island, to enter the Sea of Japan. Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) fast attack craft JS Watakata (PG-825) and a JMSDF P-3C Orion of Fleet Air Wing 2 based at JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base on the main island of Honshu carried out surveillance on the Russian ships.

La Perouse Strait is an international waterway connecting the Sea of Japan on its western exit and the Sea of Okhotsk on its eastern exit and is a routine transit route for Russian naval ships operating in the two seas. Admiral Panteleyev, Sovershennyy, Oslyabya and submarine RFS Magadan (B-602) left Vladivostok on Aug. 1 to begin a tour of port cities in the Russian Far East under a naval information and patriotic deployment campaign called “Strength in Truth” which commemorates Russian victories in the Pacific during the Second World War and the actions of the Russian Navy Pacific Fleet personnel in the war against Ukraine. The final event of the campaign is scheduled to be in Vladivostok on Saturday, according to a Russian Navy Pacific fleet release.

A second JSO release stated that on Tuesday at 10 p.m., People’s Liberation Army Navy destroyer CNS Huainan (123) was seen sailing northeast in an area 49 miles southwest of Tsushima and then between Tuesday and Wednesday, sailed northeast through the Tsushima Strait to enter the Sea of Japan. The JSO said on midnight on Wednesday, PLAN destroyer CNS Kaifeng (124) and fleet oiler CNS Dongpinghu (902) were sighted sailing northeast in an area 86 miles southwest of Tsushima and subsequently sailed through the Tsushima Strait into the Sea of Japan. Minesweeper JS Hirashima (MSC-601) and a JMSDF P-1 MPA of Fleet Air Wing 4 based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi on Honshu shadowed the PLAN ships, according to the release.