HMS Defender monitored a three-strong group of Russian warships and maintained contact with the force as it continued its journey past the UK.
The Russian trio – guided-missile frigate Admiral Grigorovich and two Stereguschiy II-class corvettes, Soobrazitelny and Stoikiy – were also monitored by Typhoon jets and P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth.
“HMS Defender is the fleet’s quick reaction escort, which means we’re ready to respond to any threats to the nation’s safety or security,” said Commander Peter Evans, HMS Defender’s Commanding Officer, in a news release.
“Escorting ships through UK waters is routine activity for the Royal Navy and demonstrates our commitment to the vital sea lanes upon which the UK depends. Defender and her crew have been engaged on operations over the past three years, covering four major oceans and most of the world’s seas – and so we’re accomplished at missions such as this.”
You can read more here.
Do they really?
The Chanel isn’t very wide so NGF would be a starting point. The Mk8 would hit the Russian ships straight off and inflict terrible damage.
Then the A15’s whilst small at Mach3/4 have huge kinetic energy and they can be mid course corrected.
The Spear upgraded Storm Shadows can be mid course corrected so I think they would be fine for anti surface. Terminal they home on image/radar whatever. Then LGB’s dropped from high level to T45’s lasing.
P8 will have access to the common stockpile with the US which includes Harpoon.
Defender would have 3 guns trained on her and the A190 has a faster rate of fire than the RN mk 8, The Russian Navy could afford to lose the 2 corvettes and still have plenty in reserve, as we can see from the Ukraine war they are prepared for attrition.
Ha, ha, ha, ha
The Russian shells have got to hit the target. They would be fitting off 100 shells to get the same effect as one from Defender.
Mk8 is very, very accurate and now it is servo controlled, no longer hydraulic, even more so. Given that it can be more directly integrated into the CMS.
You won’t need sighting and bracketing shots anymore.
Ok, I only have knowledge of the hydraulic version but I can take a fair guess at the level of improvement.
I agree. Then the French ain’t that far away either.
The cognoscenti who appreciate the fine combination of HMS QE2 and the F35B may appreciate this fine YouTube clip of the F35B landing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-4jgZwVCkQ
From the excellent Conningsby Live channel
Great footage. Flying operations and simultaneous Replenishment at sea is the sport of Kings 😄👍
I wonder which ship carried out the replenishment.
“In a tweet yesterday, it was revealed that support ships RFA Lyme Bay and RFA Wave Knight had met up with Albion to conduct a replenishment at sea – an activity Albion’s navigating officer calls “the sport of kings”.
Nothing quite like a bit of VERTREP either, the sport of the Gods 🚁⚓
LINK
Seems unlikely, Wave Knight is laid up and about to be sold off.
Good old British Government, can’t flog off anything the miltary needs fast enough. I suppose the money made will allow MPs to purchase 1st class flights to the US, Ipads, I Buds and of course hotel rooms to knock off a married bloke.
Your link is from 2019.
And this is HMS QE2 returning to Pompey with an armed police escort this morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSyda7-gCpw
Now I do wonder why a group of seriously obese armed police officers get to mess around on rubber boats with blue lights flashing…..watch this space as they say
Can I be a pedant and point out it’s just HMS QE.
(QE2 was a cruise liner – this RN ship is not named after Queen Elizabeth II ).
Point taken m8, thanks for putting me straight. Hope you enjoyed the clip tho
Great clip, thank you
I think you have got a video of the top secret Donut Squad?
These are highly trained officers who will strip a bakery bare in minutes – once they have waddled there.
Joking apart I’d be surprised if the most horizontally challenged of them could retrieve any thing from the front of his belt?
Fit they are not. Able to run a decent distance…..or jump over a fence…..although they could probably run through most fences.
I’ll get the clip from Hot Fuzz in a min…
Here is the training video….
https://youtu.be/fuEG_PSb_Ts
Probably to prevent it from being sprayed orange.
Do you know anything about the Marine section MDP? Of course you dont, have problems with your own weight do we? I know most of these men and women at Portsmouth naval base. Most are crack marksmen and women. MDP are the only permanently armed civilian police force. (other forces have sections that are). They practice weapons and tactics every couple of months, also they RIB and fast craft boat handling course any failure you come off the water and have to pass a physical every year. The course were taken by some marines not so long ago of the… Read more »
Yes, each HMNB has an MDP Marine unit. and they are well equipped with boats/RIBs.
The question I was asking myself was, so what what’s Elizabeth pulled over for…speeding, having a tail light out or dangerous driving ?
I wonder if our P8’s have Harpoon capability as delivered, Typhoon could use Paveway IV, but other than Naval Gunfire our trump card would surely be F35b sneakily drooping Paveway IV down their exhaust stacks 😁.
The P-8’s have harpoon capability as built. All the software and hardware is in place. The UK doesn’t own any air launched harpoons and the crews haven’t trained for it to the best of my knowledge.
All the P8 weapons are in a common stockpile which is a pay-when-expended offering.
One of the reasons P8 was so cheap was that UK didn’t have to buy a mountain of new types of munitions.
I’ve no idea if our P8 crews have trained in Harpoon but given the training commonality from UK/AUS/US crew swaps it would seem strange not to?
A major upgrade in lethality is on the way.
https://www.navalnews.com/event-news/sea-air-space-2023/2023/04/first-view-of-lrasm-missile-aboard-a-us-navy-p-8a-poseidon/
Indeed….
Given the cost cutting (corruption) in recent times, is it likely that their ships are missing vital armour? Munitions in date and up to spec?
Munitions will be in date, Magazine stock control is something that MoD takes very seriously!
Too seriously TBH.
A lot of good stuff is TIMEX but perfectly useful as the nice Mr Zelensky has demonstrated so well!
In the 80’s we were still firing vintage shells. Mainly to get rid of them.
Of course, nobody, leaset of all the MoD, is mentioning the sub that’s following them….
Could british war ships sale past russian coast without getting attacked, so why do we allow its, is it because Britain scared of Russian bulies
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Forces News also covers this. Article includes a photo of ‘Admiral Levchenko (correct) being escorted by HMS Defender’ (incorrect). It’s T23 HMS Northumberland, from an archive.
Do wish they’d try harder.
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British Warships & Auxiliaries 1980: Tug/Submarine Tender Dan. Has been used for fishery protection work and shadowing of Soviet Warships in British water. Shock/Horror we were using non-armed ships in 1982 for shadowing ships in 1980
Sorry “Shock/Horror we were using non-armed ships in 1980 for shadowing ships”