Russia may have planted trackers around core areas of submarine travel on the seabed around the British Isles, which would allow the Kremlin to observe NATO movements at sea.
The Royal Navy’s Astute-class submarines have been touted as among the quietest submarines in the world and even described as being as silent as a dolphin. Most modern submarines are designed to be challenging to track, as the world’s oceans are large and, at times, noisy, while submarines remain submerged, sometimes for months.
However, Russia may have placed sensors on the seabed around the British Isles to gain an edge in tracking the movements of the Royal Navy’s Vanguard-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines, which serve as the UK’s deterrent force.
According to a report from the BBC on Sunday, Andrei Kelin, ambassador to the UK, did not deny that Moscow had attempted to track the Astute-class and other Royal Navy submarines. Instead, Kelin suggested it presented any threat to the UK.
“I am not going to deny it, but I wonder whether we have an interest in following all the British submarines with very old, outdated nuclear warheads… all these threats are extremely exaggerated,” Kelin told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
When pressed by Kuenssberg, Kelin essentially doubled down, stating, “I’m denying the existence of threats for the United Kingdom. This threat has been invented. There is no threat at all from Russia to the UK.“
The Royal Navy Is Watching the Russian Navy Very Suspiciously
The Russian ambassador’s comments follow a report from The Sunday Times in the UK, which first reported that Russian sensors were hidden in British waters.
“The discovery by the British military was deemed a potential threat to national security and has never been made public. Several were found after they washed ashore, while others are understood to have been located by the Royal Navy,” The paper of record reported.
“The devices are believed to have been planted by Moscow.”
The sensors could track the movements of the Royal Navy’s Vanguard-class submarines, as one is always at sea. Each is armed with Trident II D5 nuclear missiles, and the boats’ only mission is to fire a vast number of nuclear weapons should the need ever arise.
According to the British Ministry of Defense (MoD), the Royal Navy has maintained a continuous at-sea deterrent (CASD) strategy since the 1960s that calls for “at least one nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine patrolling the seas undetected at all times.”
The deployments tend to last three to five months, but recent ones have been longer.
The location of the boats at sea is a closely guarded secret, but all are based at His Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Clyde in Faslane, Scotland. The sensors could eliminate some guesswork about where a particular boat, or other vessel, is headed.
It may not just be the Royal Navy’s assets that are in the Kremlin’s underwater crosshairs.
The Times spoke with former officials and military experts and noted that “Russia is using its unrivalled underwater warfare capabilities to map, hack, and potentially sabotage critical British infrastructure.”
Russia isn’t just reading for war with the West, including the UK; it is essentially fighting one.
“There should be no doubt, there is a war raging in the Atlantic,” a senior British military source told The Sunday Times.
“This game of cat and mouse has continued since the end of the Cold War and is heating up again. We are seeing phenomenal amounts of Russian activity,” a senior serving British military official also told the paper.
“We are seeing phenomenal amounts of Russian activity.“
If Russia is laying sensors near the UK, it could do the same elsewhere.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].
Image: Wikimedia Commons/ PoorTom.
