Royal Navy warships and helicopters were deployed this month to monitor two separate Russian naval movements near UK waters, including the activities of a known intelligence-gathering ship off the Scottish coast.
According to the Royal Navy, HMS Dragon, a Portsmouth-based Type 45 destroyer, was sent to track the Russian vessel Yuri Ivanov as it lingered off the Outer Hebrides. The ship’s presence came shortly after the conclusion of NATO’s large-scale Formidable Shield exercise in nearby waters.
“HMS Dragon monitored Russian intelligence gathering ship Yuri Ivanov as it loitered in waters off the Outer Hebrides,” the Royal Navy said in a statement. The destroyer launched her Merlin helicopter to gather information from above until the Yuri Ivanov eventually turned north, heading back toward its Arctic base.
In a separate operation, minehunters HMS Ledbury and HMS Hurworth, along with a Merlin helicopter from 814 Naval Air Squadron, were activated to shadow the Steregushchiy-class corvette Stoikiy as it transited west through the English Channel. The Russian warship appeared to be rendezvousing with two merchant vessels, Sparta IV and General Skobelev, returning from the Mediterranean.
“The Steregushchiy-class corvette subsequently escorted the two cargo ships eastbound,” the Navy confirmed, “with Portsmouth-based HMS Hurworth watching every move as the Russian group headed back to the Baltic Sea as part of combined NATO efforts.”
The five-day shadowing operation comes amid renewed emphasis on maritime vigilance, following the Prime Minister’s pledge to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP. The government has tied such spending increases to broader efforts to secure national infrastructure and sea lines of communication.
Lieutenant Commander James Bradshaw, Commanding Officer of HMS Hurworth, highlighted the day-to-day importance of these missions in a news update: “Monitoring activity on the seas and seabed around the UK is one of the core roles of the Royal Navy’s 2nd Mine-Countermeasures Squadron.”
“This operation was all in a day’s work for the ship’s company who have shown great professionalism,” he added. “We have kept a constant watch to ensure the security and integrity of the UK’s critical sea-lanes.”
The Yuri Ivanov
The Yuriy Ivanov-class, known under Project 18280, represents Russia’s latest generation of SIGINT (signals intelligence) vessels, developed to replace older intelligence ships with a platform boasting significantly improved performance and versatility. The class features a displacement exceeding 4,000 tonnes and an impressive cruising range of over 8,000 miles, enabling sustained operations far from home ports.
Although lightly armed with anti-aircraft weapons, these ships are not built for combat but rather for high-end electronic surveillance, communications interception, and intelligence-gathering missions in contested regions.
What sets the Yuriy Ivanov-class apart from earlier designs is its high level of systems integration and automation, allowing for more efficient operations and advanced electronic warfare capabilities. The class is also geared toward maintaining secure communications for the Russian military and monitoring foreign military activities. The lead ship, Yuriy Ivanov, was laid down in 2004 and launched in 2013, followed by Ivan Khurs in 2017.
A T45 with Merlin?
I thought, beyond the Carrier squadron, that Merlin force only operated from tailed T23s?
I guess as T23 numbers have dropped off the cliff they go onto T45 Ships Flights now as well.
The T45 go the ability to operate Merlin early on but it’s never been a prime platform for it. There is some form of deck prism landing system required for Merlin which was one of the early fitted for but not with items that got fitted in the end like the harpoon launchers.
That looks like a T45 following her but it can’t be as I have been told many times the UK has only one T45 that can put to sea 😀
Binning T23s before replacements are operational is going to create a lot of pain as RU looks to stretch the RN. Lancaster and the other ‘OPVs’ needs bringing back to UK waters as they and their crews are wasted in the gulf/ far east.
Increase in defence spending to 2,5 % , bla bla bla but a the moment nor a single order of a new warship , aircraft or tank ,bla bla bla only cuts.
Bla bla bla
the less ships we have, the longer the ones that we d have need to take the extra workload putting more wear on the ships, the sailors and the sailors families
send a mighty squadron of archers out to intimidate them until the ruskiies f**k off
I hope we can do something about the OOS dates of the B1 Rivers and the Hunt class. We’ll need some smaller ships for this sort of task throughout the 2030s for training and to give space to rebuild a proper expeditionary fleet with the new frigates/FADS, and it doesn’t look like new small OPVs are on anyone’s agenda (which would be my first preference). If we don’t buy new OPVs, I suggest we lengthen the life of the B1s by a couple of years to around 2030, and as the Hunt class would have gone OOS (2029-2031) refurbish them for another ten years use as OPVs in home waters.
a couple of them could be replaced by the bringing back to service the echo and enterprise which could most of the things that a river can do
This is one of the elements that we forget, since the 1997 review major surface combatant numbers have going from 32 to 14 but the small patrol and minewarfare ships are also critical and the fact we need a lot of these for day to day security and presence work..in 1997 the RN had around 30 mine warfare ships in 600-750 ton range that could also do patrol and presence work as well as 10 off shore patrol craft.
The RN always needed around 10 patrol ships and this was always part of the plan to support the needed 30 large surface combatants..
It also shows a weakness in the autonomous mine warfare..it cannot act as a presence and patrol and so that function will need to be replaced.
Interesting sending HMS Dragon with its ELINT equipment to monitor this Russia orc ship, they’ll be eavesdropping on the Russian fascists comms and electronic signals emissions which is precisely what we should be doing.
I don’t see any NSM fitted to Dragon from this picture- which is a bit disappointing as we only have 8 frigates and 6 destroyers but 4 of those destroyers are in docks having PIP- so we should in theory have enough from our 11 NSM sets to equip all available escorts. Personally would prefer all the available warships fitted with NSM cannisters- including the River batch 1 and batch 2 class vessels- give them more teeth.
An additional 11 sets being purchased would be a very wise investment for little actual outlay (assume each set is C3 console and 8 missiles in cannisters?) then the RN has a useful adaptable weapon system that can be transferred over to future ships as and when they come online.
Would like to see some clarification regarding the Merlin statement above.
“Could it be magic ?”.