HMS Somerset, a Royal Navy frigate, was deployed on December 27, 2024, to monitor a Russian naval group as it passed through the English Channel, according to a news update from the Royal Navy.
The nearly 200-strong crew was recalled to their ship on Christmas Day and set sail shortly thereafter to shadow the Russian corvette RFS Soobrazitelny and its two supporting vessels, MV Sparta II and MV General Skobelev.
The Royal Navy tracked the Russian ships over a distance of more than 500 miles, from the North Sea through the Dover Strait and into the English Channel. The Russian vessels remained in international waters, but HMS Somerset maintained surveillance using the ship’s advanced sensor systems. The monitoring was conducted despite challenging conditions in the Channel and North Sea, including fog.
“As the UK is an island nation, at all times of the year the Royal Navy maintains units at very high readiness to conduct operations in support of the UK’s national objectives,” said Commander Joel Roberts, the commanding officer of HMS Somerset was quoted as sayinh. “Maintaining maritime security, demonstrating an assertive presence, ensuring compliance with maritime law, and deterring malign activity in our territorial and adjacent waters are essential components of our maritime strategy and crucial to our national interests.”
When weather conditions permitted, HMS Somerset deployed its Merlin helicopter from 814 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall to support the operation and capture imagery of both the Russian ships and the Royal Navy’s activities.
Minister for the Armed Forces Luke Pollard expressed appreciation for the crew’s response during the holiday period: “I would like to thank the crew of HMS Somerset for their dedication after readying themselves for action at short notice during the Christmas period, and promptly setting sail from Devonport to keep the UK safe.”
This mission highlights the Royal Navy’s ongoing role in maintaining maritime security and demonstrates the ability of the Armed Forces to remain on high readiness during critical periods.
HMS Somerset is one of 21 Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels on patrol or ready to be deployed throughout the festive season.
Good news that Somerset is active and deployable again.
Presumably she was on the fast response rotation? Bit suprised they didn’t just use an OPV….?
It would make sense to have a small fleet of ASuW armed patrol craft for these escort and shadowing duties rather than a fully crewed front line frigate. But today’s RN has to run with what they’ve got available not what we would like.
TBH a River is fine to show presence working in tandem with QRA or standoff weapons with a cab.
It’s why it would be nice to get the Rivers 2s into patrolling UK EEZ after the T31s are ready. A 2000 ton patrol ship with a good selection of autonomous surface air and even sub surface vessels is just the ticket for cost effective patrol and protection of sea based infrastructure. Personally I would like to see the RN patrol resources removed from any fisheries protection work and just focus on constabulary, patrol, monitoring of foreign military, intelligence and infrastructure protection within UK EEZ.
We don’t need £120m vessels doing the job of £35m vessels, while £350m vessels (or more after capability inserts) do the job of the £120m ships, at four times the operational cost per sea day. We need to replace the B1Rs with appropriately costed ships and let the new frigates act as the warships they are supposed to be rather than global presence ships. An Evolved Cape Class costs £35m, and running 6 of those in our home waters would be more than sufficient for catching smugglers and escorting Russian ships through the Channel.
@jon
The navy is not there to catch smugglers and escorting Russians is a tiny function..the cape class would be good for boarder force, not the RN undertaking EEZ patrols and protection of infrastructure, mine warfare etc for that you need a decent sized patrol vessel that can carry stuff…and be configured for different operations. Evolved capes would be a bit of waste for the RN. To small and focused entirely on boarder security.
While I agree for these duties a frigate is overkill but you need a frigate on standby for submarine activities and therefore the choice ends up use the frigate or have 2 ships on standby
HMS St Albans is the nominated TAPS Duty Ship this Holiday period.
Quite: 200 crew for a well armed T23 versus 50 for a River. I suspect a judgement call based on the armament of the corvette, the fact that there was a group of 3 vessels and our current diplomatic posture with Russia. In any case its an indication of how tight things are for the RN. Given the current climate, the extra use we are making of the Archers, the trialling of Proteus and Sterling Castle and the impending replacement of the batch 1 Rivers I look forward to what the SDR has to say about the Home Fleet.
I believe HMS Somerset overreacted. Russian vessels have been travelling to the coast of Scotland for some time and docking in Shetland and Orkney isles.
It is good to see an RN frigate with ASMs installed. At least it shows the Russians that we have warships and are not toothless.
They *know* that RN isn’t toothless.
The reality is that RN vs Russia would end very quickly with the Russian fleet all converted to new duties as special project submarines.
The AShM with land strike capability (NSM) are more for return to sender if a crazy tries to take a pot shot at an RN vessel. They are also useful for RM support.
Wondering how a duel between this Corvette and Somerset would play out.
They both have the same number of AShms, Somerset has the advantage with AA missile numbers.
I’d posit three questions in response to that. Ignoring radar and crew training deficiencies.
Q1: Can Russian naval missiles hit anything?
If they are anything like their land counterparts they fire in the approximate direction and land within 100m of a static target – which isn’t terribly useful. Bearing in mind this is a moving target and so much harder to hit anyway.
Q2: can Sea Ceptor take out the Russian missiles assuming they get past the EW EMS Soft Kill?
Q3: can the Russian systems do anything about incoming fire from the 4.5″ gun or NSM? Given they cannot do anything about the URK drones and other systems then I would have my doubts. Nothing in war is a certainty and there are always nasty surprises on both sides.
Q3 the corvette has an A190 100mm gun which is said to have twice the fire rate of the RN 4.5, and despite being a smaller caliber has a slightly heavier shell, not sure of the range, but I think this would be a scenario to avoid.
However the 100mm gun still has to hits its target?
The Russian army have won the volume shell lobbing prize: WW1 style award.
I’ve never seen any information confirming Russian naval radar guided gunnery was all that.
Don’t forget could they do anything about a volley of Mach 3 CAMM missiles. Even if it could intercept a NSM, hitting a CAMM would be very challenging for anybody.
The entire strait is within the territorial waters of France and the United Kingdom, but a right of transit passage under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea allows vessels of other nations to move freely through the strait
Russia has nearly 50 attack submarines, I think you have forgotten this. The hypersonic misiles are in the game too, please be realistic not supporter.
Give yourself a tea break pal with the hyper sonic fridges shite!
Let’s look at the Russian SSN SSGN fleet that the RN needs to consider ( Northern fleet)
Active
2 Oscar 2S both 35 years old…
2 Sierra 2s both 35 years old
2 akula both 25-29 years old
2 Yasen.. all modern built but first laid down in 1993.
Refitting
2 victor3 35 years old just coming out of refit…
4 akula all 30 to 35 years old all in deep refit….
Even its 2 most modern SSGNs in the northen fleet are essentially a warmed up soviet designs from the 1980s and peers of the Trafalgars, The rest are actually soviet built and essentially peers of swiftsure class.
It’s amazing how Russia can keep submarines for 50 years and for us it’s 30, they must be really well made much like Russia’s 10,000 tanks 😀
HMS Trenchant would have been one of the newer Russian SSN’s.
Because the Russians don’t care about the lives of their people.
If you don’t care you can bodge things up endlessly.
Can you imagine the issues getting and making parts for 45 year old designs!
The irony is that when a River is used we get some here complaining it is not a Frigate.
Now it is a Frigate, assume the FRE, and some call for something smaller as a Frigate is overkill.
Both are fine by me as long as there is a response.
The Russian Corvette being shadowed is only 100 tons larger than a River, but much better armed.
Whatever was sent was on the high alert rotation for that kind of a tasking?
Somerset could have been sent deliberately to scotch rumours that she was out of service?
RN would have known to days when these ships were likely to transit so this wont have been a knee jerk reaction.
Personally just glad to be she is serviceable.
Agree, in the end it just needs to be the most convenient RN asset available, its only escorting a nation undertaking its right of transit, no big deal..the important bit is turning up and showing capability.
I agree. Too many are still stuck in the mindset of frigates being a few thousand tonnes gun armed general purpose vessels, now they are 8,000 tonne £1 billion anti submarine cruisers they can’t be used for every little mission.
Steregushchiy class corvette, quite well armed for its size.
A few armed drones could have escorted Putin’s ships at a small fraction of the cost.
Now, with the boys and girls coming back from leave, can we put a ship near to Russian territorial waters on the 6th and 7th of January and screw up their Christmas celebrations? Tossers.
a lovely Idea but a shite time of year..we have lovely seas and ports..Russia has the Barents, white and Kara seas …sending some poor buggers to do freedom of navigation across the bits of those that are not covered in ice would be self flagellation at best and at worst you would need the help of a Russian ice breaker…
Just a slight correct to the article, the other two ships were not support vessels for Soobrazitelny, one is a state run commercial oil tanker and the other a state run bulk RORO cargo ship..both are heading to the Black Sea, undoubtedly laden with war stocks for the Ukraine campaign. The Soobrazitelny is their escort.
It’s interesting that Russia now feels it needs to have an escort for these ships all the way from st Petersburg to the Eastern med.
Ditto
Does the communist regime have any cables we can play with ?
Probably.