Russia War Games Planned; Biggest Naval Exercise Since Cold War

The Russian navy announced it will hold the biggest war games in the country since the Cold War later this month.

The Russian Defense Ministry released a statement on Tuesday outlining the major military exercise that will encompass ships from all four of the country's major fleets.

"The primary goal of the exercise is to train issues regarding formation of a battle group consisting of troops of different branches outside of the Russian Federation, planning its deployment and managing a coordinated action of a joint Navy group in accordance with a common plan," the ministry's statement said, according to Russia Today.

The participating ships come from all of Russia's four major naval formations: the Northern, Baltic, Pacific, and Black Sea fleets.

The ships will converge in the Mediterranean and Black seas in order to strengthen integration between different types of forces and gain practice with major military deployments outside Russia's immediate neighborhood.

Such a large display has not been seen since Soviet times and can be seen as a sign of growing naval strength thanks to increased spending.

Russian President Vladimir Putin allocated $772 billion of the country's budget to renew all of the armed forces in order to maintain its role as a major military super power, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

The increased military spending means the Russian navy is slated to receive 50 new warships by 2016 that includes top of the line nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines, according to RIANOVOSTI.

While the scale of the upcoming war games is on the grander size, smaller naval exercises are held by the Russian navy fairly often.

In August, Russia sent ships to the Mediterranean for a combined training exercise with different fleets.

Reuters reported that the exercise involved three large amphibious assault ships, two frigates, a destroyer and two support ships.