Ninth report on the naval situation in the Mediterranean Sea

New (9th) report on the naval situation in the Mediterranean sea.

Warning. This post shows the positions of the main naval groups or other individual units deemed relevant. This post is not exhaustive of all units present at sea at this time.

NATO naval forces

NATO currently has 3 aircraft carriers available in the central/eastern Mediterranean:

1) The USNavy aircraft carrier USS Truman (CVN-75) and her Combat Strike Group is somewhere in the Ionian Sea after the participation in Neptune Shield 2022 exercise.

2) Italian aircraft carriers Cavour (C550) and Garibaldi (C551) are both in Taranto naval base

3) The Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 is in Catania

4) the USNavy expeditionary mobile base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4) , is in Souda Bay

5) ITS Grecale (F571) , which intervened in defence of Italian fishing boats attacked by Libyan patrol boats in international waters, is in the central Mediterranean

RUSSIA naval forces

Compared to the situation a few weeks ago, the main Russian naval units have withdrawn to the eastern Mediterranean. Almost all of them are in Tartus where they are refuelling after the last few weeks at sea.

1) The cruiser Marshall Ustinov  and the frigate Admiral Flota Kasatonov left Tartus on 2 June for a new Mediterranean cruise

2) the Russian Navy spy ship Vasiliy N. Tatischev (SSV-231) was reported mid-May in the Strait of Sicily and since then we have had no news of his whereabouts

3) two Kilo class submarines are in Tartus