The Royal Navy closely monitored a Russian naval task group, consisting of two landing ships and four other vessels, as they transited the English Channel this week, according to a press release.
HMS Iron Duke, HMS Tyne, the support ship RFA Tideforce, and a Wildcat helicopter from 815 Naval Air Squadron tracked every move of the Russian ships—RFS Aleksandr Otrakovskiy, RFS Ivan Gren, merchant vessels Sparta, Sparta II, General Skobelev, and oiler Yelnya—as they travelled from the Mediterranean toward a Russian Baltic port.
Commander David Armstrong, HMS Iron Duke’s Commanding Officer, described the operation as part of the UK’s ongoing commitment to protect its waters:
“Whilst this particular Russian task group was not assessed to pose a specific threat to the UK, this closely coordinated operation demonstrates our steadfast determination to protect our nation’s territorial seas and Critical National Infrastructure; on which our economic prosperity depends. It is not enough to hope passing non-allied warships will not threaten our maritime security – we will be there to make sure they can’t.”
Lieutenant Matt Cavill, HMS Tyne’s Executive Officer, added that the mission demanded rapid changes in role for the patrol ship’s crew:
“It is credit to the team on board that they have been able to switch from the demands of delivering Navigation Training at Sea for the Royal Navy, to shadowing Russian warships as they transit through UK waters.”
The operation involved continuous surveillance using ship- and aircraft-based sensors, including the Royal Navy’s Plymouth-based frigate HMS Iron Duke—activated as the Fleet Ready Escort—and an RAF P-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
European allies also coordinated by deploying their own naval and aerial assets in the busy international shipping lane near the French coast. This follows a similar interception last month, when HMS Somerset and HMS Tyne tracked a suspected Russian intelligence-gathering ship through the Channel and Strait of Dover.
Are these Russian ships withdrawing from Tartus?
According to the Maritime Executive these were previously at Tartus, Syria and now returning to Baltic, presumably St.Pete, if not Kaliningrad, to provide replacement for equipment lost in Ukraine. So any unserviceability or delay would be Supporting Ukraine…
Let’s hope rail passage from Kaliningrad remains blocked.
The russians think this is a show of force, to see
how and what our response time would be. lets hope they were not disappointed![
(
Sounds funny, this are passing military ships, what kind of force are they trying to show, it makes everyone think that the UK feels extremely horny to fight Russia. English channel is an international passage.
A clapped out old frigate and an old opv. How can you say show of force with a straight face?
I’d take a Type 23 in the hands of a well trained RN crew over any other peer warship on the planet.
👍
Delusional. How is it going to sink another ship at range? Torpedo from the wildcat?
Stingray is an ASW weapon.
Channel waters and the commercial shipping lanes where the escort is taking place are confined waters, so range is not necessarrily a factor.
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The T23 pictured has no ASMs fitted, and the 4.5″ is a good weapon, noting it out ranges the 57mms on the Ropucha, though close-in, I’d open the range first 😉 …of course having the NSMs soon will be a big boost in offensive firepower.
I love the bluster, but, a FREMM, AB, Japanese, Korean – modernised Chilean T23… Yep, balls, surely. Truly? No. This Govt and the previous shower need to be held to account over an appalling RN surface fleet at the moment. Mark Felton made the point in a YouTube yesterday: 27 Rear Admirals 10 Vice Admirals 2 Admirals 1 Chief of the Defence Staff Not forgetting Royalty who actually charge the RN to pass over their lands (???) and dock at berths (???) Please remind me of the number of capital ships we had in 1939 and the number of Admirals.… Read more »
Was going to point out the same . I like to see levels of our military but to at least as it was in 1989 when I was in the forces. Even the us said we are a tier 2 military now ..its embarrassing
Just these 2 sliding across the waters? A show of strength.? Gosh what a joke. Yes , you are right. it is embarrassing
Bit too much spice on yer weener to read the article accurately…
P8 Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft overhead as well, so state of the art surveillance on any anchor incompetent vessels.
So we assign a surveillance aircraft and that makes it a show of force? Suppose its better than last December where the Russians just sailed through the channel on their own! That was embarrassing!
The P8 carriers torpedoes.
Can actually carry Harpoon as well.
There are Harpoon in the joint stockpile: no idea if UK P8’s carry them.
Where can you support your statements?All orc ships are escorted by a RN vessel big or small it doesn’t really matter does it? Orc ship opens fire at one end of the channel do you actually think it would come out the other end intact?
Why would we need more against Russia’s own clapped out crap?
Clapped out crap is something we have in common then. Difference is our anti ship missiles have a 130kg warhead. There’s is a 500kg warhead. Coupled with aging hulls that needed thousands of weld repairs during MLR. I think I know who would be worse off in an engagement.
Me thinks you are biased, sunny Jim.
Yes.
The Russians, with an incompetent, probably-drunk crew, decades-old tech and their missiles, although heavy, will be far less accurate.
I’d much rather be in the Royal Navy ship.
The weld repairs were to bring them back to a very high, internationally recognised, certification standard under class rules.
If you’d actually seen a refurbed T23 close up it is surprising how new all the fitted kit looks.
They were fully refurbished to a very high standard as they should be.
So your insinuations are wide of the mark.
The issue supportive is that they don’t seem to then be economic to repair when they then hit their 6/7 year refit as they all get retired at that point…as hull numbers get even tighter they may focus on trying to get them working into another refit period after their lifex but at preset the LIFex has been the last refit any of the T23s have had before scrapping.
“ The issue supportive is that they don’t seem to then be economic to repair when they then hit their 6/7 year refit as they all get retired at that point” I never said they were economical to repair. I said they were repaired to a very good standard. I also never said any of this was a good idea and you well know I’d have been all for T26 being in service by now. “as hull numbers get even tighter they may focus on trying to get them working into another refit period after their lifex but at preset… Read more »
Our ships have integrated air defence systems that actually work..Russian navy air defence systems. Are essentially what the RN had in 82…AKA not able to defend against anti ship missiles.
I love the amount of troll chuff that appears when the bots clock the words “Russian and/or Ukraine”, they come out of the sad woodwork pretty quick, desperate for those extra 5kg of mouldy spuds as the best troll of the month ward.
The Ropuchas are pretty old and ex-Soviet, but the Ivan Gren class are new, larger and currently in production. It’s worth remembering that not all of the Russian Navy is clapped out.
Let’s just take a look at how many Ivan Green class vessels they have managed to build since production started in 2004… Oh dear. The Ropuchas have a very poor record at being able to perform self defense against basic naval drone threats and would suffer far worse against a legitimate naval vessel. As far as other modern major surface combats go (excluding the rabble of corvettes they mustered up due to lack of true supply and construction infrastructure for blue water escorts) they’ve managed to make 3 serviceable Gorshkovs since 2006, and that’s pretty much it unless you count… Read more »
Yes Russia does seem to have lost the ability to build modern large surface combatants above the 5000 ton mark.
You make a valid point and even the latest production of those light frigates were sold, I think to india.
It’s difficult to hold a straight face given your chosen name.
Blame Peter Griffin!
He spelt it differently.
Nothing wrong with the 23 it’s better than any Russian equivalent
8 nsm? Russian New frigates carries 32 kalihbr missiles with a warhead nearly 5 times the size. That means it would only take one hit to sink a ship. Look up the old harpoon strikes on target ships. That’s a 221kg warhead and I’ve seen it blow holes in ships and not sink them. The nsm is about 121kg! The kalhibir is 500kg! Do the math.
You are working hard for those 5kg of spuds as troll of the month, keep it up, the 5 litres of 2 stroke in the next phase of awards are nearly yours.
What you want me to blow smoke up your ass? Get a life 30 years of governments has decimated our armed forces. If you don’t know that you are living in lah lah land. Calling me a troll you muppet!!!
No smoke up my bum please, that’s an exit only! Get a life? mmmmm my life has been in uniform for most of it, yours? The muppets were quite good, can I be Oscar the grouch please….thanks
Heavy sigh, I told you before Airborne, you are Cookie Monster, I am Oscar the Grouch.
The 2 landing ships are armed, but IMHO a type 23 outguns them.
It’s not the ship mate it’s the people on it, God bless the royal navy now and alway, God’s speed.
Snafu stuff, 2025 and all’s well.
Peace is about to break out, that can’t be a bad thing, unless you’re a warmongering idiot who’s nowhere near the front line. 🫶✌️
I assume you are referring to the warmongering idiot hiding in a bunker under the kremlin?
I assume you’re kitted up waiting to go over the top in Donetsk ?
It literally is not, the rate of conflicts is accelerating. Both conflict deaths and numbers of conflicts have been growing in the 2020s from the being of the century.
Hiya Jonathan The American Emperor is gonna get what he wants cos he’s the strongest, the police actions and civil/border skirmishes don’t really count, it’s the big boys with the nukes you’ve gotta be careful with. It’s quite pitiful watching the wokerati Europeans trying to get a seat at the big table by using empty words and gestures when in reality they are economically, politically and militarily unsound, they have proven themselves to be tactically and strategically wanting and in my humble opinion have lost the high moral ground by letting their historically sound values collapse in a multitude of… Read more »
Wow that was a word alphabet my troll, you need to work harder as troll of the week might be going to the weener geezer….
People are allowed to criticise without be a troll and the guys right!!
Carlos spicy whatever….do make an effort at reading all his previous posts, just a troll, but you haven’t been here long enough to read them have you mmmmm PS I would reply directly to you but the site set up has changed, but I know you will read this as you don’t seem to like being gripped and caught out.
Remember we got nukes to ruski.
“Show of force”? Yeah right.
It’s just a headline, it’s someone’s words to describe a rather normal set of events that happen all the time.
they shouldn’t be passing through our waters no matter whether they’are a threat or not, ,shity ass government papping their selves.
They should have been stopped blockaded.
Deary me, It’s one of the words busiest International shipping lanes and we are not at war. You are most probably on the wrong sort of site given your apparent ignorance.
Its actually French waters also given the shortest distance of 20 miles. Rights of passage mucker, plain and simple.
It’s not French waters at all as it’s 20 miles from our land
It’s French and UK waters with a lawful right of transit for shipping, delineated at the mid line, obviously we can’t claim the whole 20 miles or it’d be on the French coast. Honestly apply a little common sense.
In the NATO sphere the UK is responsible for the Channel for our own waters at the narrowest point , the right of passage between the two countries , and the wider international waters towards the West . The French maintain no bases and no capital ships in the Channel .
And just how far do you think it is from France! 🤔
Gosh you do realise they have a right of passage and if the UK tried to stop them it would be breaching international law and get sanctioned by the rest of the world faster than you could say whoops sorry.
Because blocading the world’s largest land power is really going to upset them.
Some of you just don’t look at maps do you?
You do realize that annoying Russia is a positive to many people on here? Salisbury did Putin no favours in the annoyance stakes.
Like flights, how about publicly broadcasting that all russian ships are now banned from our waters and if any enter then blow them up. I am pretty sure they would sink any of ours if they entered russian waters
Because the have the right of passage in international law, law of the seas are binding to us as well as to Russia.
A few years ago a RN T45 (HMS Duncan?) sailed into the Black Sea, to demonstrate Right of Passage. The Russians responded by sending several fighters to make low-level passes and other daft manoeuvers around Duncan, which sailed on regardless.
It was on one of the early editions of ‘Warship’ on TV.
The T23 and OPV are appropriate.
Why a Tide if in our own waters?
It was available, I don’t see it as a problem really, any vessel is useful on these transits.
Hi Daniele,
I wondered about that as well, perhaps the Wildcat was embarked..? Or may be she was already out and about so they gave her something interesting to do? Or just making up the numbers..? 😉
Defence is getting a lot of coverage in the wider media just at the moment. Hopefully, that is a bit more promising about the damage the review is likely to do..!
Cheers CR
It’s a simple answer really, these ships have been tracked for weeks, we have a duty ship and ships all along the southern coast who come out to play as and when. It’s a major positive that we have Devonport, Portland and Portsmouth along the way. On top of that I think you will find many other nations ships would have been doing exactly the same and will do all the way to their destination. It’s not just the RN who are doing this.
Would be prudent to up-arm the River class a little. Maybe 40mm Bofors and NSM canisters would be a nice uptick in capability. Seems a bit daft sending them out to shadow any near peer potentially hostile vessels
Turn the River Class into the Half-Arsed Class?
That would be a terrible idea for a number of reasons:-
– if you pretend to make a River into a ‘warship’ that is all you get funding for going forwards kiss goodbye to any more large ship orders to swell the fleet; and
– you end up taking a River to war as it is ‘sort of fighty’ in reality you have created a one hit ship; and
– as everyone sees apparently fighty ship numbers up pressure comes off for real fighty ships….
Missile carriers are common based of ships of that size and displacement. I think the only issue with arming opvs thay way is the radar. IR can be used for aerial targets but antiship missiles need radar. That or a fully connected network that uses other ships/terrestrial radar.
You up arm the ship,,you increase the crew, essentially you kill the range, endurance and economy, which is the whole purpose of class. If you look at 2000 ton vessels that have a lot of weapon systems they have very little range and endurance.
Absolute garbage. You cannot up arm an OPV to change its class, the clue is in its name.
UK-based B1 Rivers would be decommissioned by the time we could get around to upgunning them.
And not a word on replacing the 3 batch 1 vessels which means they won’t be!
Yes, most likely we will see the B2’s reassigned to UK waters as they are replaced by T31.
Navy Lookout has posted an article and some very nice photos on the RN’s latest escort duties through the Channel into the North Sea. Well worth a look.
English Channel our territory and backyard so Russian vessels should stay away and we stay away from the Black Sea their territory and backyard simples.
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – you would like to break this and give credibility and legality to Chinese aggression?
Are there looking something under the sea llike submarine are u boat .
Put the glass down now !
Or fill it up again!
The people in the comments against British military will probably never understand why you’re so clean in the military, which is a sad thing to think of.
Define against? I’ve read all the comments and can’t see what your referring to?
Show of force 🤣🤣🤣🤣 they would turn you to dust in an instant
Just remember, Ukrained got rid of it’s Nuclear and Russia plotted then tried to take it. Our idiots here in Scotland want not only independance but rid of our Nuclear. Well I do not want to learn Russian.
Lucky we didn’t realise the Yellow Ducks
Routine operations on both sides in international waters