Russian frigate conducts live-fire drill near Plymouth coastline

The live-fire exercise occurred in international waters and lasted approximately thirty minutes.

The Russian vessel asked HMS Tyne to move to a safer distance, and the British ship complied.

A French military aircraft monitored the Russian frigate and established radio contact to seek clarification of its intentions, according to the BBC.

BBC Verify reviewed flight and ship‑tracking data that reveals the locations of HMS Tyne and multiple British military aircraft operating in and around the Channel near Plymouth on Monday.

ADS‑B Exchange flight data shows at least four Royal Air Force and Royal Navy aircraft operating off the Dorset coast, primarily above UK territorial waters, comprising two Eurofighter Typhoons, a Voyager air‑refuelling tanker and a Super Lynx helicopter.

A French H160M Guépard helicopter also flew over the Channel that afternoon; it remains uncertain whether this was the aircraft that contacted the Russian warship.

MarineTraffic data indicates that HMS Tyne began transmitting its position roughly 40 miles off Plymouth at 13:57 BST on Monday, staying there for about two hours before departing at 15:56 to return to port.

HMS Tyne has been monitoring the Russian frigate Neustrashimy since at least 16 July, when both vessels were also imaged together in the North Sea, approximately 36 miles from Felixstowe port in Suffolk.

The episode serves as a reminder to the new prime minister of the growing Russian naval presence near UK waters over recent months.

Last month, Royal Marine Commandos boarded a Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker in the English Channel during a six‑hour operation—the first of its kind undertaken by UK forces.

In June, a British couple sailing in international waters of the English Channel encountered the Russian warship Admiral Grigorovich about 23 miles off the Isle of Wight.

The frigate fired warning shots as Jane and Alan Kelvey sailed their yacht, an action Russia’s defence ministry described as a “dangerous approach.” The couple, however, said they were not on a collision course.

Russian warships routinely transit international waters in the Channel, which lie outside UK and French territorial limits.

Tom Sharpe, a retired Royal Navy commander, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that conducting a gunnery exercise so close to the south coast was “very unusual.”

“It is entirely permissible, but in my view it constitutes a signal,” he said.

Apart from the warning issued to HMS Tyne, the Russian vessel took no additional safety precautions before firing its 100 mm cannon, he added.

“One concern with firing a weapon of this calibre is that shells can ricochet for miles—potentially more than ten miles beyond the intended impact point,” Sharpe added.

“You are in the world’s busiest shipping lane, and there is no telling where the rounds might end up,” he said.

When asked how the UK should respond, the retired commander suggested: “One could argue that this action was a reaction to our own escalation in the Channel, following our boarding of the MV Smyrtos—a dark‑fleet vessel now anchored off the south coast.”

“We are now caught in a tit‑for‑tat dynamic reminiscent of Cold War normality; we have simply forgotten how common such encounters once were, but we must recognise that they are occurring ever closer to UK waters.”

Additional reporting by Ella Kipling, Barbara Metzler, Thomas Spencer and Patrick Jackson

Source link