UK frigate HMS Somerset this week ‘tracked’ Russian Navy ‘research vessel’ RFS Yantar in the English Channel ‘just weeks after it was caught loitering over critical undersea infrastructure in UK waters’, according to the UK MoD.’

In an unusual twist the UK MoD admitted that a Royal Navy submarine during an earlier incident ‘surfaced close to Yantar…to warn it had been secretly monitoring its every move.’

Today UK Secretary of State for Defence John Healey (seen here aboard a RN Trident missile submarine during a during recent visit) said: “My message to President Putin is clear. We know what you are doing, and we will not shy away from robust action to protect Britain.”

UK MoD also confirmed today seabed surveillance & defence vessel RFA Proteus, in November last year (when the Russian spy ship last visited waters off UK) was also then involved ‘in the shadowing of Yantar.’ Btw Proteus sailed from Portsmouth this week, though possibly unrelated to latest episode.

Someone has suggested kind folk of the RN Submarine Service did not want to go active on sonar with a warning ping in case Russian deep sea divers (or some such) were too shaken and stirred. Hence SSN surfacing & not ‘one ping, one ping only’…Thought to have been Anson (as in thread pic) or Astute.

We’ll also have this yarn, with a bit more detail in a forthcoming edition of Warships IFR magazine.