Russia Plans to Deploy Aircraft Carrier to Syria

When Putin pulled the bulk of Russia’s military forces out of Syria last March, it caught the West off guard. NATO probably thought that the Russians were interested in the same catastrophic brand of nation building that they are, but the Russians proved to be smarter than that. However, while the Russians don’t plan on being bogged down in a Middle Eastern quagmire, they’re not quite done bombing ISIS in Syria .

According to an anonymous military source that spoke to TASS, a Russian news agency, Russia’s aircraft carrier is going to be deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean between October of 2016 and January of 2017. “The General Staff has prepared a plan for involvement of the deck aircraft in delivering strikes on terrorist groups in the Syrian Arab Republic, where the crews will practice taking off the carrier to deliver strikes on ground targets.”

The 1000 foot, 43,000 ton ship known as the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is Russia’s only remaining aircraft carrier after the fall of the Soviet Union, will be carrying 15 Sukhoi Su-33 fighters, 15 MiG-29 warplanes, and 30 helicopters. The ship will be coordinating with the Lakatia Air Base in Syria, and will be deployed close enough to Syria’s shoreline “so that the deck aircraft have enough fuel to complete the military tasks and return back,”