Royal Air Force aircraft were involved in monitoring Russian naval vessels in close proximity to UK waters recently, according to a press release from the RAF.
The aircraft, including Typhoons and P-8A Poseidon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth, operated in coordination with Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyer, HMS Defender.
The Russian vessels being monitored consisted of a Grigorovich class frigate and two Stereguschiy II-class corvettes.
The press release elaborates, “The air element of the mission was controlled by RAF Boulmer based 19 Squadron, as part of their standing 24/7 mission operating the UK’s Air Surveillance and Control System.” This system is responsible for the tactical control of aircraft.
In the initial phase, two live armed Typhoon aircraft that had been conducting air intercept training over the North Sea were redirected to the location of the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich. This allowed for an overflight to be conducted, showcasing a sturdy UK response to the presence of the Russian Navy.
Wing Commander Graham Crow, Officer Commanding 19 Squadron, stated in the press release, “The mission was a clear demonstration of the effective and flexible use of Air Power, switching seamlessly from a complex training mission to an encounter with the Russian Navy several hundred miles away in a very short space of time.”
Additionally, P-8A Poseidon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth’s CXX Squadron also observed the Russian ships from the air.
Equipped with sensors to detect surface vessels and submarines, Poseidon generates a comprehensive image of activities above and below the water, relaying this information to commanders and allied units.
Neither platform has any standoff anti ship capability
The P8 has torpedoes, depth charges, harpoons.
Typhoons have pave way bombs, brimstones.
We aren’t at war with Russia yet. If it was going to be sunk a submarine would be the weapon of choice.
These are just observation flights.
If we suddenly found ourselves at war, how would our handful of Astutes suddenly appear wherever needed? We MUST have stand-off AShM capability on all our escort ships(of which we’ve never had fewer) & all our strike aircraft.
We don’t just ‘suddenly’ find ourselves at war with a nation like Russia.
Nope indeed but tensions have been build up to a war with Russia for almost a decade. There is an unfortunate possibility that we will end up at war in the not distant future. Mainly due to a blindness over what Russia had become from 2000 onward and failing to see how deadly a combination a few things were: 1)Putins belief that the west is weak..while at the same time.. 2)promoting a narrative to his people that the west is a threat to Russian and 3)being welded to the near abroad and sovereignty over all Russian people’s foreign policy (… Read more »
“Mainly due to a blindness over what Russia had become from 2000 onward and failing to see how deadly a combination a few things were”
You are still blind, your understanding is based on your own perceptions without any real attempt to ask yourself why Russia has these attitudes and a failure to have a honest look at the collective west’s own actions.
On saying that, I do enjoy the comments here very much 🙂
Ulya I’m not blind to the western foreign policy and its impacts on Russia in the 1990s. First I thing the end of history brigade with their the West won and all nations would become western, both damaged Western credibility and completely alienated a lot of nations, Russia included..I’m also not a great lover of the fact that NATO expanded as much as it did. I think it was a foreign policy mistake and we needed a different arrangement for security in Europe post the fall of the Soviet Union, that included Western Europe, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe Russia and… Read more »
Thank you for the reply, some interesting points. I disagree about Russia needing to control neighbours, couldn’t care less about Baltic countries or even Finland joining NATO, Ukraine is completely different case, what I don’t understand is why NATO is so desperate to get Ukraine to join or why neutrality was not possible. I understand west Ukrainians not wanting anything to do with Russia but East Ukrainians did, but any sympathy I once had for the west is lost, too many eastern Ukrainians and ethic Russians murdered while waiting for Minsk agreement to be honoured. If there was another option… Read more »
Hi Ulya thankyou for your response, it does take a lot to clearly state your views on this in a western centric group and I respect that a lot. We also know you as someone who has added to discussions on this forum before the events of 2022. I think our conversation shows the very real danger we are in at the moment in that I think Russia and the West have effectively lost any understanding of each other. That’s the wider populations not just the political leaders ( I think it’s fair to say that during the time of… Read more »
Good morning, I have flight this morning so can only address a few points as limited time. Why Putin picked SMO – do you have nother option? Talks clearly failed, how many years must we wait for the west to honour agreements or to listen to our concerns, remembering that civilians are being killed during this time in Donbass? If you take away the option of dialogue you only leave war. Boots on ground – West keeps escalating, the type of equipment keeps going up, now it is f16, as some point you run out of things to give so… Read more »
You are right, We don’t just ‘suddenly’ find ourselves at war with a nation like Russia. We normally see war coming like Churchill and start preparing for it, sorry I am being sarcastic
If we did find ourselves at War with Russia, we would have the backing of NATO anyhow?
Yes. It’s never going to be the UK v Russia on our own.
Naval strike missile sets have been ordered for at sea escorts to take over the heavy anti ship missile task. The escorts have helicopter that would be needed for targeting over the horizon and those helicopters have anti ship missiles. Within horizon range the cannon can do serious damage.
We aren’t at war and it’s extremely doubtful anyone wants to start a fight with nato.
The problem is Monkey very many wars have started when people did not actually want to go to war..( I’m not even wholly convinced Putin actually planned to invade Ukraine..as the timing was madness).WW1 did not happen because anyone wanted it..they just could not see a way not to have it.
Harpoon not yet in the inventory, nor crews trained or cleared for use!
Yes, I was thinking the shared weapons for the P8 was everything but it’s just for torpedoes.
Eleven ships (T-23/T-45) will receive NSM. The first will be fitted with it by the end of this year if all goes to plan.
The aircraft version JSM can be fitted to Typhoon.
LINK
P-8
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32071/navy-to-greatly-expand-p-8-poseidons-mission-with-new-missiles-mines-bombs-and-decoys
UK P8s haven’t got Harpoon, still not cleared for Stingray although we have crap US torpedoes. Not sure about depth charges.
This site grossly exaggerates “crap” Mk54 torpedos. It’s issues were in the late 90’s, early 2000’s and have been rectified.
Correct. I was thinking the U.K. was weapon sharing with other nations but it’s only the torpedoes🤦🏼♂️
Hopefully that will change
Released without charge. That’s the 3rd person. Cops must be thinking they will crumble under the pressure and admit to something. There politicians, professional manipulators
I keep wondering where the missing £600k went to?
Not missing. Spent.
Yeah. If it wasn’t something dodgy they would show where it was.
The armoured ferry thing did it.
Growing anti-UK sentiments are growing in the Kremlin, so we are led to believe, if so, what form will any military reprisal take? Most likely it will be some naval standoff and this appears to be what the RN has been stepping up to in recent months. Any offensive action would result in an immediate slap down by NATO forces, but just how extensive will it be? Or, we may see little from NATO just a lot of cautious hands on our shoulders pleading for restraint.
Anything will be like Nordstream where it is impossible to prove guilt enough to act
Russia is extremely unlikely to launch a conventional attack on the U.K.
some sneaky thing like what they have done multiple times before is about it.
And that’s the big problem, Putin has no respect for the west or red lines..I honestly think the man is so lost tin his own mental health issues that he would not care much..I think he would cross a line and think he could get away with it ( just like using a nerve agent in a UK city…that was not about the man he wanted killed that was about the UK, if just wanted someone killed it would have been done in a less impactful way). The trouble is if one of the more radical republicans get into office… Read more »
Certainly I wouldn’t want to dismiss entire an attack on a ship or perhaps more likely an aircraft,, after all the latter all but happened in the Black Sea by all accounts. So we have to consider the present risk not presuming we will have plenty of warning to prepare, and if we don’t have the immediate capability to respond (the presence of which in itself would be a deterrent) I certainly would not feel totally confident any one of our friends would do so on our account. It would all be about trying to de-escalate methinks. After all we… Read more »
salisbury poisonings shocked UK but probably more of a domestic message to putins opposition that they will not be safe. thought we did great job of documenting the journey of the 2 hitmen and shedding light on dark side of russia. poisoning practiced long before putin i understand.
sneaky putin woud love another deniable incident which stops short of triggering NATO
Well we are now labelled as eternal enemies it seems, apparently they believe Stonehenge was a deliberate anti Russian provocation that they have never forgiven us for.
Anyone know? – Are there standard ROE in place for our air and naval assets in this situation?
So we have one destroyer in the North Sea, any other Royal Navy force?