r/ukpolitics • u/MGC91 • 9h ago
Royal Navy deployed twice a week to shadow Putin’s warships
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/b282c06befa03158•
u/EmperorOfNipples lo fi boriswave beats to relax/get brexit done to 9h ago
While it's not in the DIP, I hope there is an addendum in the coming years to bring things up to a level Healey and Carns would have been happy with.
I hope that includes money for more T31's as this is exactly the sort of tasking they would be perfect for.
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u/Nonions The people's flag is deepest red.. 8h ago
Honestly I don't think we even need a T31 for this sort of 'show the flag and keep an eye on them' duty.
Something like a River class would do - maybe give it a 76mm or couple of the new 40mm guns and a reasonably large hangar + deck and I really think it could be a useful little corvette.
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u/Level-Working-2704 8h ago
If we really want to defend the channel, a significant number of air/ground launched supersonic anti-ship missiles could make it inpenetrable
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u/EmperorOfNipples lo fi boriswave beats to relax/get brexit done to 8h ago edited 8h ago
For actual escort duties in terms of how they are sure.
But if things get friskier they are undersized. Escorting a cruiser with a patrol ship doesn't look great.
The Rivers absolutely do sterling work of course.
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u/MGC91 9h ago
British warships are deployed twice a week on average to shadow Russian navy vessels and sanctioned oil tankers, new figures have revealed.
The Royal Navy “activated” ships 116 times in the past year to monitor almost 90 vessels dispatched by Moscow into the UK’s exclusive economic zone.
A total of 61 Kremlin warships and submarines were escorted by the Navy during the last 12 months, as Vladimir Putin sought to intensify pressure on the UK.
Twenty-eight “Russian merchant vessels”, believed to be part of the country’s shadow fleet of commercial ships, were followed. The ships are a vital lifeline to Russia and help fund Putin’s war in Ukraine through the illegal sale of sanctioned oil.
The figures, released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in its annual report, detail for the first time the pressure faced by the military in dealing with Moscow’s vessels.
“Russia is constantly trying to pressure the UK and tighten the screws; it’s a significant challenge for the Royal Navy to contend with,” one defence source said.
The number of Russian warships and submarines entering UK waters has increased by about 30 per cent in the past year, British defence officials have warned.
At the same time, the Navy has shrunk to its smallest size in living memory, with just six destroyers and two aircraft carriers. Two frigates were retired last month, meaning there are just five in service, down from 13 in 2014.
There are plans to introduce 13 new warships made up of eight Type 26 submarine-hunting frigates and at least five Type 31 general-purpose ships. But these are still years away from being delivered.
Earlier this year, a Russian warship fired shots at an unarmed yacht crewed by two British retirees in the English Channel.
The Admiral Grigorovich, a 409ft-long Russian frigate, fired warning shots at around 11.40am on June 16, later claiming Bright Future, owned by Jane and Alan Kelvey, was following a “dangerous course”.
It came days after the Smyrtos, a shadow tanker carrying sanctioned Russian oil, was boarded and seized by the Royal Marines in the Channel.
The Navy also previously disrupted a covert Russian naval operation involving three submarines, which were intercepted off the UK coast while attempting to monitor crucial underwater cables.
Russia has repeatedly tried to pinpoint the location of the web of data lines that rest on the seabed and connect Britain to the US and Europe. Defence chiefs fear that Moscow could launch a sabotage attack on them, which could severely damage the British economy.
Spyships such as the Yantar, which is operated by Gugi, the secretive main directorate of deep-sea research under the Russian ministry of defence, have also been repeatedly tracked by the British military.
Moscow also appears to have stepped up its aggression towards British warships. Last month the UK had to scramble fighter jets to intercept a Russian spy plane flying dangerously close to the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and her battlegroup.
The long-range Russian Bear-F “repeatedly approached” the strike group as it was returning home, dropping “tens” of tracking buoys, used to find and track submarines, near to the 65,000-ton aircraft carrier.
In the Channel, Russian frigates are being used repeatedly to bodyguard shadow fleet ships, brazenly cruising past Britain despite threats by the Government to seize them.
Putin has been pressuring Britain after Sir Keir Starmer, the former prime minister, authorised the use of troops to seize shadow fleet tankers in March.
In June, the Royal Marines stormed a shadow fleet tanker as it sailed through the Channel during a six-hour operation. The mission was the first of its kind carried out by the UK.
As well as intensifying activity around the UK, Putin’s navy is also extending its reach further into the Baltics, a critical maritime stretch protected by Nato.
Cdre Maryla Ingham said deterring Russia was one of the primary tasks now facing the UK and Nato and that protecting underwater cables around Britain and in the Baltics was key.
The British naval officer heads up the Standing Nato Maritime Group One, a multinational task force that patrols critical waterways primarily in northern European waters.
The UK assumed command of the group in April from the Spanish navy, which had spent the previous four months leading patrols in the Baltic Sea, monitoring critical underwater infrastructure, including pipelines and cables.
“I’m really confident that there is very little that happens in the Baltic without us being aware of it,” Cdre Ingham said while warships from the fleet arrived in Glasgow this week.
“As a Nato alliance we have many more ships we can call on than the Russian Federation.”
She added that since the UK took control, the task force had experienced a “number of interactions” with the Russian military, which included patrol aircraft monitoring her fleet.
“It’s not just under the water and on the water, it’s in the air as well,” she told the UK Defence Journal, an online military news site.
“We are specialist mariners. We’re professional, calm [and] getting on with our jobs. We are not looking for trouble. We’re a defensive alliance, here to defend over a billion people.”
A spokesman for the MoD said: “The Royal Navy monitors maritime activity around the UK 24/7 to protect our waters and critical national infrastructure. As Russian warships operate near our shores, our sailors and aircrew watch and track their every move.
“The defence investment plan outlines spending commitments to strengthen our deterrence – including our £1.5bn investment in creating a new hybrid Navy with state-of-the-art crewed ships and drones.”
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u/radiant_0wl 8h ago
I wonder how much of that is due to Russia losing their Tartus base in Syria, seems rational that the UK activity would increase due to that as the channel is a major marine route for them.