5th Operational Squadron

Fifth Eskadra
Fifth Eskadra bases, 1973.
Active	1964–1993, 2013-ongoing
Country	Soviet Union and Russia
Allegiance	Soviet Navy
Branch	Soviet Navy, Russian Navy
Type	Flotilla
Role	Naval warfare

The 5th Mediterranean squadron of warships, or Fifth Eskadra, was a flotilla of ships of the Russian Navy. It was intended for combat missions in the Mediterranean Sea during the Cold War between the USSR and the Western Bloc. The squadron's main combat adversary was the U.S. Sixth Fleet. It was disbanded on 31 December 1992 but then reassembled in 2013 due to perceived threats from NATO. Since 2013, Russia maintains the Operational formation of the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea (Russian: Оперативное соединение ВМФ России на Средиземном море).

The Soviet Navy in the first half of the 1960s had not yet been able to create a force that could effectively cripple the Sixth Fleet. The Black Sea Fleet force deployed in the Mediterranean, did not have the required strength, and the attention of the Soviet Navy's leaders was drawn to the potential of first diesel electric, and then nuclear submarines to stealthily track and, with nuclear weapons, subsequently destroy aircraft carriers.

Up to May 1965, the Soviet Navy attempted to carry out its task in Mediterranean Sea by creating a so-called mixed subdivisions formed from ships of the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet under the command of Captains 1st Rank E.I. Volobuyev and O.P. Grumbkov. This force included submarines, destroyers and supply vessels. In May 1965, the first mixed squadron was formed from the hydrographic, support vessels, attack cruisers and submarines of the Black Sea Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, under the command of 20th Water Region Division Captain 1st Rank Igor N. Molodtsov.