Russian vessels exercise in English Channel and off Irish coast
The Admiral Golovko was in the English Channel.
One of the vessels present in both cases was armed with hypersonic cruise missiles.
Russian military vessels have been conducting exercises in the waters around the UK and Ireland.
One vessel involved in both exercises was the Project 22350 frigate Admiral Golovko, armed with Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, which have a range of 900km and can travel at several times the speed of sound.
The Admiral Golovko was in the English Channel on route to “carrying out tasks” in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, but it also performed “anti-terrorism” drills while in the Channel, which remains one of the world’s busiest waterways.
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While part of its mission in Pas de Calais, the narrowest part of the Channel, was to train crew in “avoiding dangerous targets”, the Russian ministry of defence added that the “main task of the mission was to demonstrate the flag and ensure the naval presence in important areas of the off-shore maritime zone”.
The Admiral Golovko was subsequently seen off the southern border of Ireland’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The country’s defence forces tracked its movements while it was in the area, along with British, French and US navy and air forces.
Two other Russian vessels were also spotted in the area. One was a simple refuelling vessel and the other was the Yantar, classed as a research ship, but has been documented by security services as carrying equipment that would allow it to identify and interfere with subsea cables.
The Yantar has previously been observed loitering over data cables off the southwest coast of Ireland on several occasions.
While there is no doubt the Admiral Golovko sailed through the congested English Channel, there is no evidence that Russian vessels entered the Irish EEZ on this occasion.
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