Britain struggling to monitor Russian submarines in the North Atlantic as Putin deploys vessels to test our Navy’s ‘weakness’
Vladimir Putin’s warships could be stealing vital information from the Royal Navy including details about our Trident nuclear deterrent
THE British Navy is struggling to monitor Russian submarines which are lurking around the UK’s shores.
Vladimir Putin’s warships are exploiting a strategic ‘choke point’ in the North Atlantic used by Soviet ships during the Cold War, reports iNews.
The area which lies between Greenland, Iceland and the UK, is known as the GIUK gap and was used by the USSR to escape Western spies.
And now experts are warning that Russia could be seeking to steal security information from our Navy including details of our Trident nuclear program.
The GIUK gap has seen an increasing number of incidents involving Russian death ships since 2005 – with a high number occurring in the last three years.
One incident involved the Royal Navy being scrambled near the Scottish coast amid fears a Russian sub was trying to track one of the UK’s four Vanguard class of submarines.
Speaking with iNews, Dr Andrew Foxall, an expert on Russia from the Henry Jackson Society think tank, warns about the dangers of Putin’s forces obtaining the ‘acoustic signature’ from one of the Vanguard warships.
He said: “If Russia were able to obtain a recording of the signature, it would have serious implications for the UK's nuclear deterrent - Russia would be able to track Vanguards and potentially sink them before they could launch their missiles.”
In October, the Navy tracked up to three Russian subs travelling through the Irish Sea on their way to Syria.
And in the same month, a fleet of Putin’s warships sailed through the English Channel on way to the Middle East conflict zone.
The incident, which involved the ships being tracked by the Royal Navy, was seen as a show of military strength by the Kremlin.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said: “The Royal Navy maintains a vigilant watch in international and territorial waters and is always ready to keep Britain safe from potential threats.
“We do not comment on operational detail for obvious security reasons.”
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