MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian military base at Syria's Port of Tartus is still being modernized, according to Black Sea Fleet Commander Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseyev.
"The forward-basing system in the Port of Tartus is being improved," Moiseyev told the Defense Ministry's newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda.
According to the Russian-Syrian agreement on the deployment of a logistics and technical support base in Tartus, the base may accommodate up to 11 ships, including nuclear-powered ones. It is also planned to expand the base's maintenance capacities.
An informed source told Interfax in January 2017 that Russia intended to modernize the Tartus base so that it could receive cruisers. Specialists of the Russian Navy are preparing to deepen and broaden the Tartus fairway, the source said.
In May 2018, Central Military District Commander Lt. Gen. Alexander Lapin, who headed the staff of the Russian contingent in Syria until November 2017, said that Tartus had opened to cruisers.
The base is protected by a battalion of S-400 systems and Bastion coastal systems armed with cruise missiles.
Russia began its military campaign in Syria on September 30, 2015. Aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces are supporting the ground operations of the Syrian army. Russia has an airbase in Syria's Hmeimim. The involvement of the Russian Defense Ministry's special-operations forces in Syria has been officially confirmed.
There is a Russian Navy taskforce that includes warships and supply vessels permanently stationed in the Mediterranean.
A reduction of the Russian contingent in Syria was announced in December 2017.