russia has announced the creation of a new regiment within the Northern Fleet aviation, which will be armed with rare Ka-29 transport and attack helicopters. It is stated that this unit will be engaged, among other things, in covering the ship's fleet from naval drones and unmanned aerial vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
If we consider the geography of the location, it turns out that now the russians are wary of strikes by the Ukrainian Defense Forces not only on the Olenya airfield, one of the main ones for strategic aviation, but also on other military facilities on the Kola Peninsula, in particular the main base of the Northern Fleet.
Read more: Ukrainian USVs Strike russian Marquise Oil Tanker with AIS Turned Off
At the moment, it is not disclosed what serial number the newly created helicopter regiment received. It is currently known that the commander of this regiment is Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Vrublovsky, who participated in the campaign of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov to the shores of Syria in 2017 and in hostilities against Ukraine since 2022.
Until now, it was known about the existence of only one helicopter regiment in the aviation of the Northern Fleet of the russian Navy - the 830th OKVP (separate ship-based helicopter regiment) on the Ka-27 and Ka-29.
It is stated that the deployment of the new helicopter regiment of the Northern Fleet of the russian federation is taking place on the basis of the previously disbanded 11th helicopter squadron. This unit already has 30 crews. The base of this unit from 2027 may be the Severomorsk-2 airfield, which is currently being actively restored.
The russian naval aviation has at its disposal only 26 Ka-29 helicopters, which were formally distributed between the Baltic, Northern and Pacific fleets. It should be noted that the use of such helicopters in the war against Ukraine was recorded at least in 2023.
It is currently an open question whether the russians began to take Ka-29 helicopters from other fleets to create a new helicopter regiment of the Northern Fleet of the russian federation to protect against drones of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or simply "on paper" redistributed the existing helicopters of this type within the naval aviation of the same Northern Fleet.
The Ka-29 helicopter was designed to land marines from landing ships. It can carry up to 1.8 tons of combat load or up to 16 troops.
The fact that the russian Northern Fleet is afraid of possible attacks by Ukrainian drones may be evidenced by the appearance of a revealing photo on social networks: the crew of one of the Project 945A nuclear submarines at the Vidyaevo base deployed an anti-drone net over the bridge of the submarine.
Defense Express reported earlier that Ukraine unveiled Katran X1.2 USV capable of destroying up to 23 russian drones across the Black Sea. We also wrote that Ukraine's updated Katran Venom V2 Packed FPV Drones, Torpedoes, MANPADS, EW Systems, AI Into One USV.
Ivan Kyrychevsky, serviceman of the Raid 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment, Defense Express expert.Read more: Ukraine's Black Sea Drone Expertise Goes to the Baltic: Stark Proposes Vanta USV to Counter russia's Shadow Fleet
