Marines practice landing amphibious assault force on Crimean coast in drills

SEVASTOPOL (TASS): The Black Sea Fleet’s marine infantry and large amphibious assault ships practiced landing troops on the Crimean coast in drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

“At the initial stage of the exercise, the marine corps personnel practiced pulling military hardware out of the auto pool, forming a column and redeploying it to the designated area. Following this, the marines loaded the hardware and personnel within the set time limits. In total, the loading and unloading of materiel into the tween decks of large amphibious assault ships were practiced by about 20 units of the Marine Corps’ military and special equipment subdivision,” the press office said in a statement.

This stage of the drills ran at a marine infantry practice range at the Kazachya Bay in Sevastopol. Apart from the marine corps, the crews of the Black Sea Fleet’s large amphibious assault ships Tsezar Kunikov and Novocherkassk were involved in the maneuvers, the statement says.

“The large amphibious assault ships subsequently crossed over from Sevastopol to the disembarkation site and switched to landing marine infantry units from the large amphibious assault ships by the contact method onto the unequipped shore at the Opuk practice range,” the press office specified.

The SB-5 rescue tug from the Black Sea Fleet’s emergency and rescue detachment loaded and unloaded combat vehicles during the drills, the statement says.