Russian corvette conducts drills with Chinese warships in Philippine Sea – reports

MOSCOW (Reuters): A Russian Sovershennyi corvette and Chinese warships conducted training exercises while patrolling in the Philippine Sea, Russia’s TASS state news agency reported, citing the Russian Pacific Fleet press services.

“The Pacific Fleet Sovershennyi corvette, together with a detachment of PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Navy warships … conducted training to inspect a suspicious vessel during a joint naval patrol in the Philippine Sea,” TASS cited the press service as saying.

“During the episode of inspecting a suspicious vessel, Russian and Chinese naval sailors worked out an algorithm for joint actions.”

No details were given on the origin of the “suspicious vessel.”

Interfax news agency earlier reported that two corvettes of the Russian navy’s Pacific Fleet left the port of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East to carry out training missions in the Asia-Pacific region.

“When leaving the main base of the fleet, the crews of the ships practiced emergency preparations for battle and sailing, and when passing through a narrow area, they conducted training in repelling a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) raid of a mock enemy,” the agency reported, citing the press service.

The corvettes, the Rezky and the Gromky, will conduct a number of exercises in the Asia-Pacific region, including searching for and destroying mock enemy submarines, and will also work out joint algorithms for air defense and anti-sabotage defense at sea, Interfax reported.

The Rezky corvette — which according to Russian state media can fight enemy submarines and surface vessels, strike coastal targets and counter enemy aircraft — entered into the Pacific Fleet service in September, 2023.

The Gromky, of the same class as the Rezky, entered the Fleet’s service in 2018, according to TASS.