It was a pattern which Sheridan would repeat many times - serving jail terms for refusing to pay the poll tax and a fine after taking part in blockades at Faslane nuclear submarine base.

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The submarine headed back to its base on the Kola Peninsula, by the Barents Sea, which took five hours.

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On Hainan Island it has built a new, large naval base with underground submarine pens, which can support both strategic and nuclear-attack submarines.

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Meanwhile, Russia has sent a naval flotilla of seven warships led by an anti-submarine destroyer to its Syrian base at Tartus, according to Interfax news agency.

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"Deployed means they're either on top of an ICBM, on top of a submarine, or in a bunker on the base where the aircraft are located, " Gen.

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Additionally, an unspecified number of aircraft, designed for anti-submarine warfare, will be stationed temporarily at a Venezuelan air base.

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