The Russian spy ship ‘Admiral Vladimirskiy’ is off the eastern coast of Scotland heading south.
The vessel, designed to conduct underwater scientific research, left the Baltic Sea earlier this month.
According to the blog PlentyofShips, the Admiral Vladmirskiy is the sole survivor of a six unit class of large scientific vessels known as Expeditionary Oceanographic Ships (EOS).
“Admiral Vladimirskiy is a very capable scientific vessel particularly in regard to underwater scientific research. Whilst not owned or operated by the highly secretive underwater surveillance & warfare unit known as the Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (GUGI) or the PP Shirshov Institute of Oceanology whose vessels regularly collect underwater intelligence particularly near underwater cables, the Admiral Vladimirskiy’s scientific data collection is highly likely used to supplement intelligence gleaned by the GUGI & PP Shirshov scientific fleets & could be used for future surveillance mission planning. Admiral Vladimirskiy’s future tasking is unknown at this time.”
***UPDATE***
If you live on the east coast of #Scotland and you look out your window today you might see the #Russian spy ship ‘Admiral Vladimirskiy’ heading south. Had been in Moray Firth since Nov 10. #OSINT
Ref photo: pic.twitter.com/5we7GqgnxI
— H I Sutton (@CovertShores) November 13, 2022
Concerns raised over underwater security
The Admiral Vladimirskiy entered the Moray Firth on 10 November 2022. The vessel was located inside the Moray Firth Scottish Marine Region around 30 nautical miles east of Lossiemouth, home to the RAF’s Maritime Patrol Aircraft fleet, during the late afternoon and was continuing to head slowly west.
Again according to PlentyofShips, the Admiral Vladimirskiy had tracked north west, outside the UK twelve-mile limit.
“With no adverse weather reported in the region and with UK – Russia relations at an all-time low, her arrival in the Firth is of concern. As a scientific vessel with the potential to conduct covert underwater reconnaissance activity, Admiral Vladimirskiy is a Vessel-of-Interest for western Navies which are keen to understand more about Russia’s secretive underwater intelligence gathering activity therefore, it is no surprise that Admiral Vladimirskiy is being closely shadowed by the Royal Navy during her time in the Firth.”
The image at the head of the article is from the Russian military and shows the Admiral Vladimirsky during her expedition to Antarctica.
Could these ships be leaving behind underwater eavesdropping devices?
Blimmey I didn’t think it was that cold in Scotland 😀
Seriously, though she’s getting on a bit, built in 1975 apparently. Nevertheless, she is a threat to our underwater infrastructure. Cruising ‘slowly’ is probably what she would do if she was doing a sonar side scan of the area, although she could just be paying her respects on Rememberance Day…
Cheers CR
That photo was actually taken in the summer 😂
😅
It was a good summer this year, it fell on a Sunday.
Believe the Orcs have protested vigorously that those ice flows /icebergs were sinister NATO devices to hole the Motherland’s vessels. 🤔😁
It’s easy to spot the NATO icebergs. They either have a SAS beret on top or a SEAL trident pinned to the side.
👍😁
Global warming hasn’t reached Scotland yet.
But seriously, cruising slowly is all her old engines could manage. The servicing money was used on the Admiral summer dacha. The Russian do have 29 million reasons to pay respects on Remembrance Day.
Would be a real shame for the Russians if she has a smoking related accident😂😂. Been a lot of them recently. I wonder what Royal Navy ship is watching her?
Probably and River OPV..? Wouldn’t need anything more than that. Also, our limited number of escorts are probably joining up with HMSQE right about now..?
Cheers CR
Anything would do to keep an eye.
A tug might be most useful…..
COuld agree. She looks well past her sell by date. I wonder what the living conditions are like on board. Not good, I bet.
Cheers CR
Damn! Should read Couldn’t…
I’ll go have lie down ’til me brain engages… DOH!
Better conditions than a fox hole in Ukraine. Not great probably. Maybe there’s some pictures somewhere of her insides
Not much fun in Stalingrad…😁
Why is this ship being allowed to get so close? Hope she’s also being watched for conducting any activities below the surface too around any sensitive areas.
Any country only has jurisdiction over over its territorial waters which are limited to 12 nautical miles by international treaties.
Economic Exclusion Zones only give a nation exclusivity over the resources under the waves, including the under the sea bed. There is right of passage for any ship in these zones, including warships. This ship is not a warship, although it is government owned.
They can legally ap the ocean floor anywhere in the world right up to the 12nmile limits of any country. We do the same to them for similar reasons…
Cheers CR
ap should read map… Edit function didn’t want to play..?
How far was Duncan or Daring whichever it was off of Crimea when it had all that close attention from the Russians a while back.
Yes but you are forgetting that Crimea is not legally Russian. It has been recognised by the International court as belonging to Ukraine and Russia’s occupation is illegal. Therefore doesnt matter how close to crimea Duncan was. Its Ukranian territory. Or were you conveniently forgetting that fact?
There is an internationally recognised shipping lane which D class ships have used on at least 3 occasions. It lies close to the limits of territorial waters, but I do not know its’ exact location. The Russians made a lot of noise about our presence, but did nothing serious either to drive us away or register a formal complaint.
Thanks CR. I had forgotten about the 12 nm rule. Bit close for comfort though in these times.
And on a different note, good on the Poms winning the T20 🏏 bash last night against Pakistan. Good game. It helps me to feel 🏴 again watching it!
Exactly. Best to sink it to be on the safe side. I suggest trying out a Spearfish that’s had the recent upgrade
I like it but we’d better take off the war head first…. Lol 😁. We can always replace it with a TV camera.
Looks to me like a telephoto has been used on the pic H I Sutton posted on Twitter but, even so, looks like it’s within 12 miles. Built in the 70s, looks like it was designed just after WWII !!!
The picture is from 2016 when the ship was on an Antarctic expedition.
😁
Slightly OT, USS GR Ford is now at anchor in the Solent. Lots of beer will be drunk today!
Everyone, try to avoid partaking in drinking competitions w/ these swabbies. Believe some have hollow legs… 😁
Back in the day (mid 80s) we had the USS Spartanburg county alongside behind us. Every morning the USMC would do their PT in there platoons with there singing, all very enjoyable to watch. On the Saturday we invited some 4\5 down for a tour of the SM, took them in the mess and introduced them to ‘fizzy apple juice’. Several hours later we managed to pour them onto the jetty and with lots of help from their buddies got them back to the ship. Funny thing, we never saw them again!!!! Everyone else who came down avoided the fizzy… Read more »
“Fizzy apple juice”, they have trouble enough with English and there’s you lot confusing the poor buggers even more! I bet every one of them still doesn’t trust what a Brit says to them to this day. 😂
Probably being watched by an army recruit. Standing on the beach with a pair of Curry’s binoculars he bought himself. Reporting back to GCHQ on his ChiCom produced mobile phone.
In the perfect world, that would be a great training task for a small Air Independent Propulsion submarine, operated by a Royal Nay Reserve crew.
I love how every time someone writes about Russian naval vessels they write words like very capable when no one has any evidence to suggest they are anything other than antiques held together with duct tape crewed by barley educated Orcs. On another note With the hysteria in the media about power cables all the Russians have to do is sail a trawler round a Scottish island to have HMG s**ting itself. The MOD brass should have a think about the effects of that next time they are leaking some nonsense story to the press to try and get an… Read more »
‘… antiques held together with duct tape crewed by barely educated Orcs’ didn’t you know that the Russian High Brass has just stated that the Russia Navy retains equality to any Nation in the World mind you the Kremlins TV mouthpiece is calling for all out war on NATO to push it back to 1999 lines in Europe. They sure live in Fantasy World which makes Disney World look like the RUSI by comparison. Do these people believe any of this, simply trying to convince an increasingly angry and sceptical internal worried public or just want us to believe they… Read more »
Some Russians believe it, some are completely switched off to any political or mouthpiece news. Others know it’s all nonsense. What can they do though. There’s no opposition party to vote for and up until recently life had been bearable/comfortable for most so they all put up with it. There’s a great channel on YouTube called 1420 that’s goes and speaks to Russians in the streets. Now we are seeing more sections of Russian people voicing there annoyance, leaving the country etc. Some it is shock though. Imagine a foreigner turned up here tomorrow and told you everything you watch… Read more »
The greatest threat must be that they sail into Aberdeen and demand political asylum….
😁
What very few people know is whether HMG really is in a flap or whether it is making a lot of noise about nothing, just like the Russians have done with our type 45s. What I do know is that the analysts in MoD are very well-informed and very measured in their assessments; it is much more likely that any mistakes will be political rather than military.
It looks like the old Lady of Mann ferry.
Still wondering what happened to those internet cables to the Shetlands.
Hmmm…perhaps HMG/MoD should consider recasting this incident in a manner similar ro my former AF superiors, ‘don’t think of this as an issue/crisis, but rather as an opportunity to excel/adapt/overcome/ad nauseum.’ In this specific case, an opportunity to acquire an additional MROS vessel cheaply. 🤔😁 It would probably be a decent diplomatic gesture to provide the slobbering Orcs w/ some life rafts, oars, water, compasses and a couple nav charts, but those details are negotiable. Figure the all in costs at £5K or less, absent the vessel’s refit to bring up to RN standards.
Perhaps something to ponder…😁
I don’t think you could even dream of bringing that vessel up to RN standards.
Scrapping would probably be hard as it will be loaded with hazardous materials and systems.
Oh well, another perfectly good idea shot in the ass by reality! 🤔😳😁 The text which suggested an OT&E of Spearfish may still be viable…🤣😂😁
😎
I do love the fact…russia has “spy ships” and we have survey vessels.
Nothing really to get pants in a twist over, everyone does it.
This ship does make HMS Scott look like a spring chicken at only 25 years old.
Rather a lot of people standing round on deck not doing anything. I hope there’s somebody at the wheel.
Going to need to keep a very careful eye on this ship. Can it have an accident? Be in no doubt we are in a state of hybrid warfare with Russia and they have nothing but malicious intent towards the UK.
We should return the favour and have a load of our ships sail off their northern coastline.
Its gathering intelligence on our sub sea infrastructure therefore conducting a military operation against the uk.
Should be told to keep moving. If it enters our territorial waters move on or be boarded.
They get jolly cross when we send an aircraft to the Kola peninsula, even though it has civilian ADS-B kit on board and publishes a flight plan in advance. Sabre rattling may at times be counter-productive, just like crying wolf.
Times like this are when I wish the UK had a larger sub fleet – even diesel-electric would be fine for such work closer to home.
Keep a hidden eye on such unwelcome visitors, especially ones who keep trailing their coats in this manner. A few periscope shots of the ships would also make for a very interesting RN Twitter post (or whatever succeeds Twitter in a post-Musk world).
I’m not sure you want your submarines in close proximity to hyrdo graphic or spy ships. That being said we should have something even just a small cutter following every Russian ship any where near our cabals or territorial waters.
Can we convert some torpedoes with take out the stuff that goes bang and instead replace with sonar plus cameras plus lights to follow this at a distance and keep an eye on it from say and river class opv? Are our torpedoes still fiber optic connected?
She actually has pretty nice lines, very pronounced sheer 😮 Still wouldn’t loose any sleep if a Spearfish Mod1 cut her in two.
The Russian Navy ship is also regulalry sending Morse code weather back to Baltic Fleet Headquarters, Kaliningrad. This is international weather code FM13 Ship surface observation which is all decodable. RMP is Kaliningrad. RMIK is ship. From 15th November. 8345 Kilohertz CW, 0936 UTC VVV RMP DE RMIK QSA ? QTC K RMIK 975 18 15 1232 975 BT SML FOR RCD88 RIO80 BT 15091 99567 70015 41496 81219 10104 49936 57007 71022 886// 22210 00123 20806 88000 15014 BT AR RMIK K RMIK OK QRU K Breaks to 56.7N 01.5W Heading North East https://goo.gl/maps/8dpVJrETFR4zixL46 Morse code recording from ship off… Read more »
Russian missile has landed in Poland and killed at least 2 people. Will NATO respond? Russia were warned in february when war started. Not one inch into NATO territory.
Russian Navy Admiral Vladimirskiy callsign RMIK is still sending regular Morse code weather. Looks like it is heading back towards Scotland? 8345 Kilohertz, 18th November, 1821 UTC. Sending weather to RIT = Severomorsk base. VVV RIT DE RMIK QSA ? QTC K RMIK 351 16 18 2102 351 BT SML FOR RCD88 RIO80 BT 18181 99546 10033 42497 81017 10093 40044 52021 886// 22273 00133 2//// 18012 BT AR RMIK K RMIK RPT 351 16 18 2102 351 K RMIK OK QRU K Breaks to 54.6N 03.3E Heading North West at 11-15 Knots https://goo.gl/maps/6MspdrQLZgTiaQrD8 https://met.nps.edu/~bcreasey/mr3222/files/helpful/DecodeShipObservationCode.pdf Second ship on recording is… Read more »
The Russian Navy ship is back off eastern Scotland. It sent a Morse weather message back to Kaliningrad naval base, 20th November. Current position as of 0904 UTC 56.7N 01.5W Heading South at 1-5 Knots https://goo.gl/maps/BBusKEju2w8Wn6999 Morse recording https://vocaroo.com/1cAzq8gKSJqd Russian Navy Morse code weather from ship off Scotland, 8345 Kilohertz CW, 0904 UTC VVV RMP DE RMIK QSA ? QTC K RMIK 132 19 20 1201 132 BT SML FOR RCD88 RIO80 BT 20091 99567 70015 41496 81716 10073 40005 57007 76062 8872/ 22241 00114 2070 (STOPS) VVV RMP DE RMIK QSA ? K RMIK COR PBL 132 20 20… Read more »