Uninvited guests: Varyag & Shapshonikov, both Russian ships are cruising towards Brisbane in concert with the G20 forum. Two Australian frigates, the HMAS Parramatta and Stuart, are enroute to “flank and monitor” Russian activity.

Russians:

The Varyag is Russia’s Pacific flagship: a Slava-class guided missile cruiser. Very mean looking with her 16x Anti Ship Missile tubes loaded with SS-N-12 Sandbox missiles. These missiles outrange anything in the Australian arsenal; land, sea or air.

And the Marshal Shapshonikov is a Udaloy-class guided missile destroyer.

Along with Varyag and Shaposhnikov are auxiliaries Fotiy Krylov (a tug) And Boris Butoma (Boris Chilikin-class tanker).

Aussies:

HMAS Parramatta (FFH 154) and HMAS Stuart (FFH 153) are both Anzac-class frigates.

How to defeat a multimillion dollar over the horizon radar system? Cruise around it. Russian warships circumnavigated around Papua New Guinea to take up their current poise in international waters off of Australia’s eastern coast.