U.S. Navy Ends Its Arctic Exercises In Russia's 'Backyard'

British navy frigate HMS Kent; US Navy guided-missile destroyers USS Roosevelt, USS Porter, and USS Donald Cook; and supply ship USNS Supply in the Arctic Ocean, May 5, 2020. Royal Navy/LPhot Dan Rosenbaum

Business Insider: As US Navy ships wrap up a historic Arctic exercise, Russia's navy sends them off with its own nearby drills

* US and British navy ships sailed out of the Barents Sea on Friday, wrapping up several days of exercises in the Arctic, an area of increasing focus for NATO navies.
* Russia's Northern Fleet has its headquarters and major bases on the Barents Sea, and its ships conducted their own exercises in the sea as the US and British ships finished theirs.
* These photos show the latest in a broader effort by NATO navies to increase their presence in the Arctic and adapt to harsh conditions there.

US Navy ships and a British warship wrapped up seven days of exercises in the Arctic on Friday when they departed the Barents Sea, ending the first trip by US Navy surface ships to that sea since the mid-1980s.

A surface action group of some 1,200 sailors aboard Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyers USS Donald Cook, USS Porter, USS Roosevelt, combat support ship USNS Supply, and British Royal Navy frigate HMS Kent entered the Barents on May 4 for Arctic training.

The exercises were supported by a US Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and a US Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft.

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WNU Editor: The Russian Navy has started its own exercises in the same region .... Russian Northern Fleet ships to search for enemy submarine in Arctic drills (TASS).