The Royal Navy has monitored seven Russian warships passing through the Channel.
The Royal Navy say that HMS Tyne, Severn and Mersey monitored the presence of seven Russian Federation Navy vessels as they sailed past the British Isles.
HMS Mersey met up with a trio of vessels – frigate Admiral Kasatonov, a supporting tug Nikolay Chiker and tanker Vyazma – off Ushant in France and stayed with them through the Channel and Dover Strait and into the North Sea.
“Her monitoring mission was made more challenging by adverse weather conditions such as high winds and large sea states which meant the Russian ships took longer than usual to pass through as they sheltered in more confined waters before resuming their journey. The primary role of Portsmouth-based Mersey and her sister Tyne is to ensure all fishing vessels operating in home waters abide by the rules and stick to UK regulations in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone on behalf of the Marine Management Organisation. With the River class typically at sea for ten months of the year, they act as the eyes and ears of the Navy around the UK, keeping an eye on any suspicious activity as well as monitoring the presence of any warships from countries of interest to Britain and her NATO allies.”
HMS Mersey’s navigating officer Lieutenant Thomas Bees was quoted as saying that “the Russian Federation naval vessels operated in a safe and professional manner throughout their transit.”
Before the Kasatonov group sailed through the Channel, Mersey worked in tandem with HMS Tyne to keep constant watch on another four Russian vessels sailing through the Channel towards the Atlantic, say the Royal Navy.
Three Ropucha-class amphibious ships and the frigate Boiky were located in the North Sea and closely followed through the Dover Strait and into the English Channel before reaching the North Atlantic.
The next time I’d like the RN to greet such a convoy with HMS Prince Of Wales and at least one 45, plus supporting frigates. All part of POW’s work-up phase you understand.
Yup, those pop guns on the Rivers must have scared the Russians to death.
Possibly be able to scare the Tug boat crew although even that is twice the size !
Lol, yeah I love the way the Archer Class standoff with Spanish frigates at Gib too….
While I’m no expert, I’m pretty sure that a few hundred rounds of 20mm/30mm slamming into the hull and superstructure of any warship is going to give it a very bad day.
Apparently, those “guns” are just replicas. So as not to offend French fishermen or persons in dinghies.
River Class role is there to monitor obviously not engage ,Ivan. Not that the Russias would try anything with those 7 ships its not like they will send a Russian carrier group down the channel again ,its laid up rusting lol!!
I think the Russians were more worried about the shame of requiring a tug boat and a oil tanker just to reposition a single frigate.
Isn’t our problem is we lack to capability to actually respond, the PoW is a statement but can a UK F35 actually attack ship?
As a kamikaze yes.
Because if there was a shooting war that broke out what you’d want to do is put 3-6 of the RN’s most high value assets within visual range of a Russian fleet?
Or because you don’t expect there to be a shooting war and you want to waste RN resources on watching a Russian fleet make a routine transit that’s fully in accordance with International Law when you could send a single small River to keep an eye on them instead?
I just took Maurice10’s post as a little bit of Tongue in cheek personally.
That’s because you mostly just troll.
Dern, what’s wrong with the odd troll it’s all part of communication and in some ways, I’d like the RN to roll out the big guns occasionally, just to remind the Russians we are still here and growing in naval strength.
Nothing except that Captain P in general seems to only ever respond to me to be a troll, so I pretty much avoid him, or disregard anything he says.
No, he is a funny guy but who also knows stuff.
Ha, Thanks mate, It’s a fine line we tread on here at times amid the occasional Sniper !
Actually, I don’t. It’s you and a couple of others without Humour or basic knowledge that do all the Trolling….. I’m just here to help educate you in both. Hence my comment. How many other names do you post under nowadays ?
*yawn* Get over youself. You’re a troll kiddo, guess what, the only time I even engage with you is when you directly reply to me, so don’t make me laugh.
As for other alias, nope, only ever post under Dern, the paranoia is a bit sad tbh.
That’s bloody rich coming from you I must say based upon your comments here that I see.
A couple of others eh?
Ermm ? You confirming my previous thoughts here Dern/Herodotus ? ….. hang on a bit, I’m now thinking about Ulya again…… hmmmmmm ?
Given your recent comments here, neither have you !!!! Had a great chuckle a few days ago on another thread mr Teacher lol.
Would be a sight to behold for the comedy value but it is not really necessary.
They only need watching.
I suspect the Russians are heading from the Baltic to reinforce the Black Sea forces around Ukraine,
4 of the Ships are heading that general direction and the other 3 are heading home, well that’s what it sort of says in the Article above.
Just saw that after I posted. The sinister detail is that 3 Ropucha amphibious ships are heading south along with a frigate. The Ropuchas would be very useful in the Sea of Azov to land forces west of Mariupol.
Will either be that or they are heading to Syria.
Wouldn’t it be better if the OPVs were replaced with tugs? Then we could claim salvage rights if they broke down.
Ha ha…. What a cracking Idea.
Given that the Batch 2’s are going to be escorting the Russians in future and given they are a potential adversary would it not be worth upgrading them with some useful bolt on kit, for instance, an EW kit or perhaps (if it fits) the Seagull USV, or even Sea Brimstone?
Escorting Russia vessels through the channel is routine operations that we have been taking part in for decades. It’s only made a fuss off these day’s thanks to the Internet and social media.
I get that entirely. However we escort aircraft with Typhoons rather say Hawks. And if OPVs are going to be based outside of UK waters such provisioning might be useful anyway.
To be fair Liam, It’s usually out of the range of Hawks and not really the best example. Hawks are Trainers with daytime Fighting capability mainly.
I was making a point that’s all. Frankly, when you look at the arguments over this they have so many inconsistencies. The Russians have a right under maritime law to pass through international waters. So why monitor them at all? We could do it low key and simply monitor them we could use coastal radar, plus coastguard ships and aircraft. We send out the Navy for a reason, to send a message that an armed force is watching and is capable of responding to a military power with military power. One of the rebuttals to the argument that the batch… Read more »
Fair point mate.
A reasonable reply on the tinterweb! That’s a first!
Lol, not for me mate, I only tend to put over a different POV when I read silly stuff, but I’m more than happy to agree to others POV’s too if they are correct and proper like yours.
Ha ha. You are a rational person! Rare these days and a refreshing change. Thanks for that, it’s nice, like someone giving you a nod for giving way on the road, cordial!
Ha, doesn’t it annoy you when you stop to let someone through or cross the road and they don’t say thanks ? Some people are just so rude. Just like some on here !!!!
You could think of it another way. Yes, it’s a navy tasking, but why waste a highly valuable asset like a Frigate for a routine operation in the EnglishChannel. It is only monitoring after all. And it also comes down to available assets. We do have a high readiness escort available for UK duties, but that could be tasked elsewhere. It is a very normal operation to escort Russian warships, and nobody is loosing face, just because we don’t always send out the biggest and best warship we have. The Russians wouldn’t necessarily have a top spec escort to greet… Read more »
I totally get your point, but not everything has to be tooled up to the max. The OPV’s are very flexible and adaptable vessels, and I’m sure more kit will be added in the future if it’s required. 👍
Any Russian escort could light up any of our Rivers long before we got in range. Ad-hoc bolt-ons would be just a gesture.There’d be nothing they could do as there’s simply not the sensors or weaponry aboard. But we’re only monitoring them while they perfectly legally transit international waters.
“Bring us alongside at pistol-shot.”