Here HMS Cornwall conducts officer of the watch manoeuvres off Plymouth with the Udaloy II class destroyer Admiral Chabenenko (Aug 2002). HMS York carried out similar duties a couple of months earlier – shadowing old smoky (Dec 2011).īefore Putin restarted the Cold War, there was a thaw in relations and the Russians exercised with the RN and sent warships to Plymouth Navy days in 20. HMS Liverpool shadows Russia’s only aircraft carrier – the Admiral Kuznetsov, notorious for producing heavy smoke from her decrepit boilers. Other Russian submarine activity takes place around the UK in an effort to observe naval activity, gather intelligence and familiarise themselves with the waters. The SSBN is more vulnerable to detection in the channels close to home either outbound or inbound from patrol and considerable effort is made to sanitise the routes of any intruders and ‘delouse’ the boat to ensure it is not followed. Russian submarines may frequently attempt to penetrate UK waters and are especially interested in opportunities to trail and record the signatures of the nuclear deterrent boats. Precise details are not available in the public domain and the exact level of Russian underwater activity around the British Isles is difficult to assess but is known to have risen sharply in the last 5 years.
They can put civilian air traffic at risk or cause disruption as the Russians do not squawk their position or communicate with UK air traffic controllers. So far these flights have remained inside international airspace and are legal, if unprofessional. Typhoons of the RAF Quick Reaction Force (QRF) are usually scrambled to intercept them. The Russian airforce routinely sends long-range bombers or maritime patrol aircraft to probe UK air defences. The focus of this article is the movement of surface units this close to the UK but Russian military activity also includes submarines and aircraft. At least two RN SSNs suffered significant damage when getting too close to Soviet submarines although fortunately, none of their pressure hulls were penetrated and both were able to return home from patrols in northern waters. In the undersea game of cat and mouse that continues unabated today, there have been numerous recorded collisions. For example, in 1970 a Soviet frigate collided with HMS Ark Royal (IV) while harassing the ship during flying nations, damage was not serious but it resulted in the death of two Russian Sailors. There is a fine line between shadowing a vessel and harassing or interfering with its passage and safety depends on fine judgement and professionalism on both sides.
During the Cold War period, the RN was tasked to gather intelligence on the Soviet Navy and they returned the compliment with similar missions to track NATO vessels.Īlthough there have been few publicised incidents close to the UK, further afield there were some serious clashes. Keeping an eye on the movements of your potential adversary’s military is prudent for any nation and practised in many forms going back centuries with non-aligned navies across the globe continuing to keep a close eye on each other. Here we summarise this activity, its purpose and messaging. The number of Russian naval vessels passing close to the UK has climbed steadily in the last 10 years Although most of this activity is lawful and benign, the RN always deploys vessels to closely monitor these movements in the UK area of interest.
0 kommentar(er)
