The RN Type 23 frigate HMS Somerset shadowed the Russian survey and research vessel Yantar earlier this week.
In a 22 January press release, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Somerset’s tracking activities came “just weeks after [Yantar] was caught loitering over CUI in UK waters”.
The press release added that an RN submarine had surfaced close to Yantar to demonstrate to the Russian ship that it had been tracked covertly.
Handing over from NATO allies who had been shadowing the ship, Somerset used its Merlin helicopter to pick up Yantar in the southwestern approaches, and then escorted the ship through the English Channel and into the North Sea.
The RN offshore patrol vessel HMS Tyne also contributed to the monitoring activity.
Fitted with a high-end capability anti-submarine warfare (ASW) sensor suite that includes the Type 2087 towed-array sonar, Somerset is one of the RN’s Type 23s able to meet the UK’s North Atlantic Towed Array Patrol Ship (TAPS) tasking, requiring high-readiness ASW frigates to be able to respond to hostile sub-surface activity.
Yantar is returning from a deployment to the Mediterranean. During its outbound transit in November, it was tracked by Somerset’s sister ship HMS Iron Duke. As noted in the MoD press release, the UK’s own specialist seabed operations ship RFA Proteus was also involved in this shadowing activity. Proteus was present in the Irish Sea, and was pictured positioned close to the Russian vessel.
In the press release, UK Secretary of State for Defence John Healey said
“My message to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin is clear. We know what you are doing, and we will not shy away from robust action to protect Britain …. We are strengthening our response to ensure that Russian ships and aircraft cannot operate in secrecy near UK or NATO territory.”
The basics of military deterrence involve communicating to an adversary the availability of credible capability that could be used to stop the adversary from conducting unwanted behaviour, and then demonstrating the intent to use this capability whenever, and in whatever manner, may be required. Defence Secretary Healey’s words are part of that process, as was the unusual step of visibly demonstrating the presence of an RN nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) that may have been involved in shadowing Yantar.
Shadowing Russian ships in or near home waters is routine business for the RN and other NATO navies. However, shadowing ships capable of conducting CUI operations is increasingly important, given Russia’s demonstrated strategy for targeting critical infrastructure in its campaign ashore in Ukraine and given several recent incidents in the Baltic Sea where seabed cables and pipelines have been damaged. In the latter circumstances, while no responsibility for such incidents has been formally attributed or claimed, political and public discussion in NATO countries has focused on whether ships that are part of rogue actor ‘shadow fleets’ caused the damage by dragging their anchors across the seabed.
Underlining the focus of major NATO military forces like the UK on the current CUI threat in alliance areas of responsibility like the Baltic, the MoD also announced in the press release that UK Royal Air Force (RAF) P-8A Poseidon and Rivet Joint maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft will be deployed to support NATO’s ‘Baltic Sentry’ CUI-centred maritime surveillance activity. ‘Baltic Sentry’, which got underway on 13 January following the most recent Baltic Sea incident (in which cables connecting Estonia and Finland were damaged on 25 December), has been set up to build focused maritime surveillance presence in the Baltic region to deter attempts by state or non-state actors to damage CUI.
