Crimean Naval Base
Location and Role of Crimean Naval Base
The Crimean Naval Base is a territorial formation of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet administered from Sevastopol, Crimea, and subordinate to the Southern Military District. Its primary tasks are basing, protection, and logistical support of fleet units operating in the Black Sea and adjacent seas. Principal berthing and support areas in Crimea include Sevastopol (notably the Southern, Cossack, and Streletskaya bays), Feodosia, and Lake Donuzlav, with auxiliary facilities at Kerch. The base provides piers, ammunition and fuel storage, ship-repair capacity, and coastal defense infrastructure supporting surface combatants, amphibious ships, auxiliaries, naval aviation, and coastal troops.
Command and Organizational Structure
Within the Black Sea Fleet, the base furnishes administrative control and shore support to multiple formations, including the 197th Brigade of Landing Ships (military unit 72136) and the 102nd Anti-Sabotage (PDSS) Detachment (reported as military unit 27203). The 197th Brigade is the fleet’s principal amphibious lift formation, while the PDSS detachment conducts underwater security and close-in force protection at anchorages and port approaches. The base also hosts other fleet, coastal defense, and support elements not detailed here; some unit identifiers are not officially published, and open-source attributions are used where applicable.
197th Brigade of Landing Ships — Composition and Status (as of October 2024)
Open sources attribute the following large landing ships to the brigade: Project 1171 Tapir (Alligator) class Orsk (148) and Nikolay Filchenkov (152); Project 775 Ropucha class Caesar Kunikov (158), Novocherkassk (142), Yamal (156), and Azov (151). Notable status changes since 2022 include: Novocherkassk sustained catastrophic damage in a strike at Feodosia on 26 December 2023 and is widely documented as a total loss; Caesar Kunikov sank on 14 February 2024 after an unmanned surface vessel attack off Crimea; Yamal and Azov were damaged in strikes reported on 23–24 March 2024 at Sevastopol, with subsequent imagery indicating repair activity; Orsk and Nikolay Filchenkov have not been publicly reported destroyed, though open reporting on their current readiness is limited. The Project 1171 Saratov (150), historically part of the Black Sea Fleet’s amphibious forces, was destroyed at Berdyansk on 24 March 2022 and is no longer operational.
Amphibious Ship Classes — Capabilities
Project 1171 Tapir (NATO: Alligator) and Project 775 Ropucha are roll-on/roll-off beaching landing ships designed to transport armored vehicles, troops, and cargo and to land them across unimproved shores via bow and stern ramps. Typical capacities reported for these classes are approximately 20 main battle tanks and over 300 troops for Project 1171, and around 10 tanks and 300–340 troops for Project 775, with actual vehicle and cargo loads varying by configuration and mission. Both classes mount light naval guns and close-in weapon systems for self-defense and have limited organic air-defense or anti-submarine capabilities, with designs optimized for littoral sealift rather than extended blue-water operations.
Operational Employment and Constraints since 2022
From 2022 onward, the brigade’s ships were employed extensively for sealift between ports in Russia, Crimea, and occupied portions of southern Ukraine, including operations at Berdyansk in March 2022 and Feodosia in December 2023. Turkey’s 28 February 2022 decision under the Montreux Convention to close the Turkish Straits to warships of belligerent states restricted the Black Sea Fleet’s ability to introduce additional amphibious ships from other fleets, limiting reinforcement and replacement options. Increased long-range strike threats to Sevastopol prompted more frequent dispersal of vessels to alternative ports (such as Novorossiysk) and adjustments to berthing and movement patterns within Crimean waters.
Port and Repair Infrastructure Supporting Amphibious Forces
Sevastopol provides the principal berths, fuel and ammunition depots, and maintenance capacity for amphibious units, including access to the Sevastopol Shipyard (Sevmorzavod) and affiliated Black Sea Fleet ship-repair plants and dry docks that conduct routine maintenance, overhauls, and battle-damage repair. Feodosia offers additional berthing and cargo handling and was the site of the 26 December 2023 strike that destroyed the Ropucha-class Novocherkassk while alongside. Lake Donuzlav accommodates auxiliary and smaller vessels and provides sheltered approaches. Detailed capacities, current dock schedules, and munitions storage layouts are not publicly released.
102nd PDSS Anti-Sabotage Detachment — Mission and Assets
The 102nd PDSS detachment’s mission is port and anchorage security against combat swimmers, unmanned vehicles, and other underwater threats in the approaches to Crimean berths. Tasks include patrols, underwater monitoring, inspection and clearance diving, barrier emplacement, and escort of high-value units during harbor movements. PDSS units typically employ dedicated anti-saboteur patrol boats (e.g., Project 21980 Grachonok), small fast craft, diver-detection sonar, and specialized weapons and munitions suited to near-surface and subsurface defense. Open sources associate the identifier military unit 27203 with this detachment; official confirmation of that number is limited in the public domain.
Security Measures and Base Defense Posture
Crimean ports employ layered defenses integrating PDSS patrols, physical barriers and booms, optical and radar surveillance, and coastal air-defense and electronic warfare coverage linked to Black Sea Fleet shore-based units. Since 2022, documented adaptations have included expanded anti-drone barriers at harbor entrances, increased patrol density, and more frequent nighttime port movements to reduce exposure. Specific watch rotations, sensor coverage footprints, and detailed barrier configurations are not publicly available.
Legal Status and International Context
Crimea is internationally recognized by most states and the United Nations General Assembly as part of Ukraine, while Russia has administered the territory since 2014. The Montreux Convention of 1936 regulates passage of warships through the Turkish Straits; on 28 February 2022, Turkey announced closure of the straits to warships of belligerent states for the duration of the conflict, a measure that continues to shape Black Sea naval force levels and logistics.
Data Reliability and Gaps
Unit titles, hull numbers, project designations, and the cited loss or damage events derive from widely reported open-source information and battle-damage imagery between 2022 and October 2024. Some details—such as precise manning, current readiness states, repair timelines, detailed infrastructure capacities, and complete unit identifiers—are not publicly available or are classified and are therefore not included. The duplicate reference to the 197th Brigade in the supplied data appears to be a repetition of the same unit rather than a separate formation.