After NATO, Russia begins military exercise in Pacific Ocean

According to the Russian military, the country's defence forces on Friday started large-scale drills in the central part of the Pacific Ocean.

The Russian defence ministry said, "an operational exercise of the fleet’s combined arms forces is running in the distant maritime zone."

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The Russian military exercise involves submarines and missile cruiser including the anti-submarine warfare ship Admiral Panteleyev and the MiG-31 interceptor.

Russia has sent twenty warships including support vessels for the exercise along with the frigate "Marshal Shaposhnikov".  The Russian navy will also showcase the Tu-142mz long-range anti-submarine aircraft during the exercise.

The Russian defence military's move comes as NATO launched one of its biggest air and missile exercise named “At-Sea-Demo/Formidable Shield” involving ten nations off Norway and Scotland last month.

NATO said part of the exercise was to "detect and track" missiles at 20,000km per hour.

"Ships will also defend against an array of anti-ship and other sub and supersonic missiles," NATO declared.

The NATO exercise ended on June 3 as several nations including France, Germany, Italy, UK, the US and Belgium took part.

(With inputs from Agencies)