HMS Defender, a Type 45 Destroyer belonging to HMS Queen Elizabeth’s Carrier Strike Group, is sailing to the Black Sea despite Russian warnings that it is ‘tracking the movements of the British warship’.
HMS Defender has completed NATO security operations in the Mediterranean and will be heading to the Black Sea after a stop in Istanbul.
The Type 45 destroyer is part of the UK’s Carrier Strike Group but has peeled away from the task group temporarily to carry out her own set of missions in the Black Sea.
“Over the past few weeks Portsmouth-based Defender completed intensive training and worked on Operation Sea Guardian, NATO’s mission in the Mediterranean to deter and counter terrorism. Defender is now in Istanbul with Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen – which is also part of the Carrier Strike Group – and will be hosting representatives from the Turkish government, business world, armed forces and defence sector during her stay there.”
You can read more about the deployment of this vessel at the Royal Navy website here.
Use of the Black Sea by non-Black Sea states is limited by the Montreux Convention but it allows warships from outside powers to remain in the body of water for 21 days.
HMS Defender’s main role as a Type 45 Destroyer is air defence and providing protection to other ships by detecting and neutralising enemy threats with the Sea Viper anti-air missile system.
Back in 2018, sister ship HMS Duncan was swarmed by 17 Russian jets in the Black Sea. Footage from a documentary showed the moment HMS Duncan was swarmed by 17 Russian jets as she led a NATO fleet through the Black Sea earlier this year.
The footage formed part of a four-part Channel 5 documentary called Warship: Life at Sea. This documentary premiered on the 26th of November at 9pm (GMT) on Channel 5, more information on the documentary can be found here.
Not sure how that is a warning. Russia tracks all NATO ships in the Black Sea. Would be shocked if they didn’t. Just like NATO tracks all Russian ships near NATO countries.
It does seem an odd headline as tracking another nation’s warships when it’s close to your coast sounds standard procedure, not a threat.
This is getting serious now, do we carry enough missiles to stand a chance ?
How is this getting serious now? What is different to any other time the RN visits?
It clearly shows one of our Wildcats being blown up, what will happen next ?
That picture is showing a wildcat firing off its chaff dispensers for a dramatic effect photo. It’s not being blown up.
I think Heroic was adding a healthy dollop of humour to their post.
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I’ll be man enough to admit, you got me and apologise for the tone Shouldn’t have a beer and read these sites. 😊 . Unfortunately there are too many WUM’s on these sites, and too many comments and negative stories make it into the mass media.
Not taking away from the fact the UK MOD has many historical issues with equipment, budgets and planning, this paints an even poorer picture of our armed forces and their capabilities.
A case in point was an article this week headlined something like “Falklands unprotected and at the mercy of Argentine attack”, highlighting the Rapier system.
Doesn’t mention the QRA Typhoon force and the Mt Pleasant airbase. The 1200+ personnel down there, or the ground to air missile defences they will have access to.
Nor the fact that Sky Sabre is on its way or is actually there being set up.
Yes, keep the beer and reading separate!
I completely agree with the rest of your points, though.
Or that fact that Argentina couldn’t attack their way out of a wet paper bag at the moment….
Flares. In high threat areas to confuse heat seeking missiles. In this case on exercise presumably.
need a wink or something at the end of the post else WWIII will happen if people misunderstand the post 🚀 🚀 🚀 😉
Oh 😨 , I don’t want to start a war, I’ll do some serious winking 😉
Plenty of air cover operating in Italy next week if anything were to get interesting. Wouldnt take too long to get to black sea via a quick air refilling out of Cyprus.
Surprise at this ,why break away from CSG are we trying to upset Putin .😠
It’s a standard rotational nato deployment. Nato warships are only allowed into the Black Sea for a maximum of 20 days, (I think), before being replaced. The ship it has replaced has joined CSG21 for the same period after ending its Black Sea rotation.
Who cares if we upset Putin after what hes pulled in the past.
How many of his own people has he poisoned to date sorry it’s hard to keep track. Not including the ones he’s had shot we need to keep the numbers manageable
Don’t get .me wrong can’t stand the man after what did in the UK back 2018 ,at least in the 80s cold war there were signs of Respect to a point.😉
This is about proving a point. It is called Freedom of Navigation. Putin claims most of the Black Sea as his when only a fraction of it falls under Russian controlled territorial waters.
When they Buzzed Duncan if this had been a combat scenario they would not have got close to her.
Who’s this Putin poster, is it Ulya ? I think I upset him earlier. 😱
The Russians get only provocative with the UK because the UK demonstrates no hard power. The Turks are definitely not to be messed with they are the only NATO country that sit right in front of the Russians in many conflict zones and only country that shot down a Russian fighter jet and backed not down when NATO countries showed them their backs in 2015.
Do you think it was shot down by Turkey again then and not Russia, I hope it was just an accident but the picture seems to show lots of explosives going off
It’s not being shot down. It’s a PR picture showing a wildcat using its chaff dispensers. If an RN helicopter had been shot down, do you not think it would be ALL over the TV?
Sarcasm is often lost on people.
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It’s a cover up.
I think its a peace symbol. Its a white dove flapping its wings and the wildcat is the head. Just chill, all will be ok
Ha ha 😂 your taking the piss right? 👍🏻 Great comedic value though 👍🏻 Commenting in a serious tone gotta applaud that style 👏🏻
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Well thats not true, the Russians buzzed US ships multiple times when they visit the black sea area. UK demonstrates no hard power? Well the UK is a nuclear power thats pretty much hard power and its not like the UK Gov warns Russian ships traveling near UK waters is it.
So threatening with nukes like a rogue state North Korea is hard power projection ? Haha come on. Everybody knowns nukes are the last resort if a war happens with Russia etc On a conventional war the UK army stands no chance, so it would not be the Russians resorting to nukes because they have no need to. The UK army will be reduced to just 70k, in the 1980s German invasion exercise the UK sent 150k amphibious force to invade Germany.
We have no air defence systems even to protect the country nor any systems to protect bases or systems to deter an enemy . We badly need air defence systems long range cruise missiles and ballastic missiles for the army.
I saw the amphibious exercise in the Baltic’s and was shocked to see they used Land Rovers 😳 and called it sophisticated 😂 This needs to change!
Russian trolling much lol, true, army numbers are small but then again we are a prime NATO member and in that we have the second largest navy in NATO hence where all the MOD funds go, Russias navy ,more than half and all large ships are very old soviet era in which Russia cannot afford to replace hence the only new ships they are building is are mainly small corvettes and the joke of their only carrier continues only because of putins desperation in making his navy look blue water, which it is not. No NATO army would be fighting alone against Russia . I’m glad to give you a much needed reality check;)
Cruise missiles are useless as an defensive warpon, they are a offensive warpon. To defend the UK mainland from ballastic missiles from the east, intercepters would need to be positioned further east in the Baltics. Not going to happen!
In a time of real crisis how valuable would the T45’s be in avtually defending UK airspace ? I’m thinking picket ships in the north sea could be a line of defence against Vlads bombers and xruise missiles ? I mean we have no other capable system.
I guess you could have more Aster 30/NT on land and start making an BM/area denial shield, and add Land Ceptor/CRAM for point defense per base. But then you will encourage Russia to make more missiles for saturation attacks etc. Look at what happened with Iron dome in Gaza if Hamas had more unguided rockets to fire you would expend your smart interceptors fairly quickly.
Do any of you Guys know what’s happening with the new ADF system the British Army were supposed to receive a few years ago 🤔
First sets of Sky Sabre, (land based version of Sea Ceptre used on T23/T26/T31), have been shipped to the Falkland Islands, and more slowly to be issued with the intention of replacing UK rapier sets.
What are these sets for the defence of airbases, ports, army bases, radar sites? I’m with DRS, we don’t have to allow others to determine what level of defensive SAM/ABM ability the UK has. There’s a huge amount of ballistic nukes vs ballistic nukes already, surely a defensive ability is the right of any sovereign nation to have? I’d like to have seen an additional 2 T45s in our fleet just so more could potentially be out on patrol, but it’s expensive option.
A T45 would need to be in the right place, and at right time, to defend against ballistic missiles. To intercept at Mid-course.
So the millions of us unimportant people won’t have any defence, once again, yes?
Unfortunately, it is the case!
That is why we have Trident, a retaliation warpon.
I agree!
Even if rail gun tech worked, you would need a lot of rail guns to defend against saturation attacks.
Each rail gun would require a mini power station with energy storage devices like super-capacitors, for their energy requirements to fire hypersonic projectiles.
Seeing as Vlad brought back the old bombers, we should bring back the Bloodhound Missile (I used to live near RAF North Coates and remember seeing them lined up along the sea front as a kid), not sure how useful they were though!
For now, there is no reason to panic. Since 1945 (Operation Unthinkable) Heaven is holding back the wind of the WW3. And so it will be until the appointed time. In the Book of Daniel, we read, “And both these kings [Great Britain and Russia. In 1882 British troops occupied Egypt. Great Britain then took the role of “the king of the south”. Around the same time, Russia expanded its influence in the region, which previously belonged to Seleucus I Nicator, and took the role of “the king of the north”], their hearts (will be) to do mischief, and at one table (they) will speak a lie; but it will not succeed. Indeed yet (the) completion to (the) appointed time. And [the king of the north] will go back (to) his land with great wealth [1945. This detail indicated that after the previous victories Hitler will attack the Soviet Union and will fight to the bitter end]; and his heart (will be) against the holy covenant [Soviet Union introduced state atheism and believers were repressed]; and will act [it means a lot of activity in the international arena]; and go back to his own land [1991-1993. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. The troops from the Soviet military bases returned to their country]. At the appointed time (he) will return back [Russia will regain the influence, which it lost after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, it also means crisis, which will eclipse the Great Depression. Not only the eurozone will break up, but also the European Union and NATO. Then, also, many countries of the former Eastern block will return to a military alliance with Russia], and will enter into the south [this will be the beginning of the global nuclear war. The detonator will be the ethnic conflict to the south of Russia’s borders (Matthew 24:7)], but it will not be as the former [2008 – Georgia] or as the latter [Ukraine. Here too, a military response from the West is not to be expected now. However, the next time, after the return of Russia, there will be a military confrontation with the United States], for the dwellers of coastlands of Kittim [the distant West, to be precise – Americans] will come against him, and (he) will break down [will lose hope], and will go back.” (11:27-30a)
Thanks for that bedtime reading!
You been eating those spice (M) mushrooms again, you naughty boy!
And the darkness covered the land because it was night, but hope returned as shockingly did the sun again rise in the morning.
I wonder how many vipers HMS Defender is packing? The Navy wanted 48, the treasury wanted 6, so we compromised on….?
Russia can wipe the USA Europe and the UK any time it wants to and there’s nothing we or any body can do about it fact. and will if you poke to hard they will be wipe out also so really anything what we all do is just a expensive game. China That’s is a threat they really believe they can rule the world and will try
What about the HMS Prince of Whales?