The crews of the Baltic Fleet’s small anti-submarine ships Zelenodolsk, Urengoi and Kazanets held a tactical exercise to hunt down an enemy submarine and destroy it by torpedo fire, the Fleet’s press office reported on Wednesday.

“The crews of the small anti-submarine warfare ships Zelenodolsk, Urengoi and Kazanets practiced attacking a notional enemy’s submarine near the coast of the Kaliningrad Region. The firings against a submerged target were performed by practice munitions – standard torpedoes without warheads that were found and retrieved from water by the crew of a torpedo recovery boat after the combat exercise was fulfilled,” the press office said in a statement.

The crews of the surface ships operated in interaction with Ka-27 anti-submarine helicopters of the Baltic Fleet’s naval aviation to hunt down the notional enemy’s submarine and maintain contact with it. A Project 636.3 submarine simulated the enemy during the drills, it said.

In the process of accomplishing their combat training missions at sea, the small anti-submarine warfare ships Zelenodolsk, Urengoi and Kazanets conducted a series of shipborne drills, in particular, shipboard damage control, air defense and anti-saboteur exercises, and also performed joint maneuvering, it said.

The small anti-submarine ships Zelenodolsk, Urengoi and Kazanets are designed to hunt down and destroy enemy submarines in inner maritime and coastal zones. They are armed with AK-176 and AK-630 surface-to-air artillery systems, RBU-6000 rocket launchers, 533mm torpedo tubes and advanced sonar systems.