OSINT: Russian Navy Movements in Kola Peninsula, July 2020
A collage of Sentinel satellite imagery (from Sentinel hub) of the Russian Northern Fleet in the Kola Peninsula. ESA make available a range of imagery from their satellites including Sentinel-2. This is lower resolution than many other satellites but makes frequent, almost daily, passes of most locations of interest. Even though it is low resolution, a trained eye can identify submarines on the surface, and of course warships.
OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) provided by Frank Bottema (Twitter) and @MatchlessMan410 (Twitter).
Original graphic. CLICK for high-resolution image.
Of particular interest, the GUGI special mission submarine BS-64 Podmoskovye is seen leaving Olenya Guba on July 17, assisted by at least two tugs. She is seen again the next day on the surface in the Motovsky Gulf. In this image she appears to have a payload on her back.
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There was a submarine rescue exercise in Motovsky Gulf around this time, involving the Pr.1855 Priz-class deep-submergence rescue vehicle AS-34. See photo below. It is unclear whether BS-64 was involved, but she can carry a DSRV on her back, so this may be the payload seen. Alternatively it may relate the Shelf seabed nuclear power plants, or a seabed sonar array system.
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