British frigate HMS Lancaster is shadowing Russian cruiser Marshal Ustinov (sister ship of the Ukrainian destroyed Moskva) and destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov in an area of international waters that are part of Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

A Russian Naval tanker, the Vyazma, has also been operating in the Celtic Sea and the St George’s Channel area with the warships over the past few days.

Local media in Ireland is reporting that the Irish Air Corps are understood to have dispatched a surveillance aircraft to monitor the movements of the ships over recent days also while the Irish Naval Service were working to dispatch a ship to observe.

The Irish Defence Forces said they “aware of this activity and are monitoring the situation. However, Óglaigh na hÉireann does not comment on specific operational deployments.”

 

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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39 COMMENTS

  1. Sorry to be a critical first post but the above photo is a very dated T23 with Seawolf!
    But good on a Ireland and the UK working together.

      • G’evening from Sydney Danielle, I can’t give the exact technical details but the fire control radars are definitely for Seawolf, the main search radar is not Artisan and my eyes don’t see a CAMM mushroom farm but other than that, you’re right, not too put if date… Lol 😁
        Sorry, I’m very critical with dated photo images after over 20 years in the book publishing industry. And that was over 15 years ago. I use to get very cranky when new books came out with dated photos! But things change quickly, including ships and technology. Even the Sydney skyline here, so much building going on above underneath.
        I liked hearing on the news tonight about UK sharing training on the Astutes with Australia. There was coverage of the the Aus Defence Minister Marles being at the Anson sub launch with B Johnson and Defence Minister Wallace. Great looking sub, eleven years in the making. 🇦🇺 🇬🇧

      • They do but the caps are different. Sea Sceptre has a black ‘half-moon’ cap vs the stock photo shown which is most definitely Seawolf.

      • It does, but there are a number of “tells” that show this is older SeaWolf equipped T23. No Artisan radar on the main mast. Plus it still has the SeaWolf director on the bridge roof.

      • If it has a 911 tracker.on the bridge and hangar roof it’s a Seawolf picture .
        Ceptor doesn’t need them so they where removed above and below decks and a small data link dome fitted in its place for ceptor data link updates

    • The image is from a 2013 deployment (according to the reference attached to the Wikipedia article the image is sourced from), so no LIFEX.

    • The photo is from the defence imagery website. It’s the 2013 Caribbean tour.
      https://www.defenceimagery.mod.uk

      Title:
      HMS Lancaster
      Filename:
      45155777.jpg
      File Date:
      11/06/2013
      Caption:
      Royal Navy Type 23 frigate HMS Lancaster in the Caribbean Sea. HMS Lancaster, the Queen’s Frigate is ready for a challenging deployment where she is scheduled to undertake a range of tasks across the Atlantic in support of British interests.

      That’s the info of the actual photo. The site is stacked with pics

      • Thanks to all the above responses, confirming right ship but pre-CAMM. I will say it’s still nice to see a full deck of Harpoons even if it was back in 2013! 😂

    • I believe UNCLOS permits navigation through straits, even if they do intersect with territorial waters (provided the usual stipulations around passage) – otherwise ships would also be unable to navigate via the English channel past Dover.

      I would expect an RAF and RN presence as the ships navigated though if they do proceed with that route rather than turning back.

      • My understanding is that the Dover Strait is an example of an international strait used for navigation and, as such, all ships and aircraft are permitted free and unimpeded passage without the permission of the adjacent coastal states (i.e UK and France). At a time when the maximum breadth of the territorial sea was 3 nautical miles, a High Seas corridor would have existed in the Dover Strait but, when the limit was increaded to a maximum of 12 nautical miles, the corridor disappeared.

    • Time for a high seas firing …NOTAM out and claim we fired and scared them off as they disappeared over the horizon…Hang on that sounds familiar…😂

    • Ships of foreign navies can conduct “innocent passage” through the territorial waters of another country without prior notification provided they don’t conduct economic/military activity in those waters. This is similar to the situation that HMS Dragon found itself in last year when it sailed past Crimea in the Black Sea and the Russians buzzed it with jets and kicked up a diplomatic fuss. Slight difference of course is that Crimea belongs to Ukraine not Russia but nonetheless innocent passage was the principle that was applied by the UK government.

    • Just a quick look on marine tracker has Róisín and WBY outside the harbour mouth, Yeats maybe heading up the Irish Sea to Dublin, Róisín heading for the U.K. I’ll have a look on my walk later to see what’s left in harbour, Niamh is still getting its midlife done.

    • To answer the question the other P60s are still in the Basin, but one of them is one the steel jetty so may be preparing to sail.

  4. Wonder what the AC sent? Seen some comments that the CASAs are fecked again, if they are it might have been one of the PC 12s.

  5. I don’t know why it’s a controversial passage through UK waters, with ships this unreliable I would do everything in my power to hug more sheltered inland coastlines that my stand by tug can get a rope on to to me if I break down. The last thing anyone needs is a Russian warship running aground on Cape Wrath.

    I think we should all take a minute to salute the incredibly brave Russian sailors forced to risk their lives on such museum ships in such hostile waters. These ships can even catch fire and sink in storms in inland seas like the Black Sea. Imagine trying to crew one in September round Scotland 😀

    • They travel much further than that. The Marshal Ustinov itself has come from Tartous where it has been based this year so has already come a good distance and is premumably traveling home to Murmansk via the Irish Sea. According to H Sutton she has just refueled. Whilst the Pacific Fleet Varyag, the other 1164, is currently in the Mediterranean, having sailed without incident from Vladivostok.The Moskva should have been scrapped or updated years ago

      • Don’t worry the Ukrainians are scrapping them on a regular basis for you and your floating rapists johnskie! You should be thanking those Ukraine people, saving Putin money on breaking them up and paying the potato pension (and shit cheap car) for your rapists, instead of supporting this illegal invasion of their country and the murder and rape of its people!

      • I watch YT account Sub Brief , he explains Russias pacific fleet is reduced to mostly just coastal corvettes 13 and one Udaloy frigate ,a very green sea fleet Ivan lol!!

  6. Didn’t Russia offer that as face saving after the Moskova: “No, no, no, the pride of the Russian navy is still intact…

    That sounds like they get their information from the same source our friend JohninMK gets his. He writes it?

  7. I suppose when it sank it put the fire out?

    So now they can salvage what it left of her and waste billions of rubbles tying to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse?

  9. Russia is like that kid at school that was always saying he’s got the best computer in the whole school. It’s a special Japanese custom job his dad got from the inventor of the game boy. Every day he tells anyone my custom computer is the best, scientists keep asking him to use it to run experiments it’s so good.
    Whatever anybody says about any computer there’s is better.
    Months later someone finally gets a look at this wonderful computer and works out it’s 10 year old piece of junk with a Japanese sticker on it.

  10. Maybe we should be dropping free matches for Russian forces as their fire safety lapses seem very productive for the defence of Ukraine.

  11. Marshal Ustinov – I think we may still have a couple of Harpoons left….

    on a different note does anyone know why Sea Eagle ASM was retired?

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