Russian spy ships

[Ayahuasca]

Those Russian 'trawlers' that shadowed NATO vessels. What intelligence were they collecting, and did NATO have similar spy ships?

[randlemarcus]

Electronic intelligence, i.e. the frequencies of traffic, radar, weapons signatures etc, as well as keeping eyes on fleet makeup and movement. And of course we did

[ecsrobin]

Ayahuasca said:

Those Russian 'trawlers' that shadowed NATO vessels. What intelligence were they collecting, and did NATO have similar spy ships?

They still exist. A Russian one sank last week after crashing into another vessel.

They collect a lot of radio traffic, and monitor vessel movements. They can also provide an airborne picture.

This is the Norwegians current vessel:

[db]

As an ATC cadet in the early 80's (83 I think) I lucked into a Nimrod flight at our anual summer camp at Kinloss.
What was supposed to be a 3 or 4hr training flight ended as a 5hr 45min Russian "fishing boat" carnival.

I have no idea of our altitude when the first one was spotted, but I do know we ended up very much lower, very quickly.
The photo run was across the stern at a few hundred feet, up to 2,000 feet, turn and down to a few hundred feet to capture pics of the bow, up to 2,000 feet, turn and down to a few hundred to take pics of the port/starboard side of the hull, then back up to tens of thousands of feet. Ad nauseam.

I don't remember how many ships we saw that day, but it was many more than the crew expected.
At some point, dinner was served. Steak and chips with an egg cracked over the lot, cooked to a pale soggy blandness never experienced nor repeated since.
That didn't go down well, nor did it stay down well!

Would love to it again

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

db said:

I do know we ended up very much lower, very quickly.
The photo run was across the stern at a few hundred feet, up to 2,000 feet, turn and down to a few hundred feet to capture pics of the bow, up to 2,000 feet, turn and down to a few hundred to take pics of the port/starboard side of the hull, then back up to tens of thousands of feet. Ad nauseam.

Peacetime MOA (Minimum Operating Altitude) for Nimrod was 200ft.

I have no idea why you would pull up to 2000ft to manoeuvre given that you could use 60 degrees angle of bank at 500ft (unless there was bad low level turbulence).

For ship phptography you would do a 'run of 3', that is to say MLA (Mean Line of Advance - ie the direction the ship is travelling) followed by a cross stern shot followed by a reverse MLA. Min approach distance being 1/4 mile (500ft).

Alternatively you might do a Reverse MLA, followed buy a cross bow shot followed by a MLA.

[db]

Ginetta G15 Girl said:

Peacetime MOA (Minimum Operating Altitude) for Nimrod was 200ft.

I have no idea why you would pull up to 2000ft to manoeuvre given that you could use 60 degrees angle of bank at 500ft (unless there was bad low level turbulence).

For ship phptography you would do a 'run of 3', that is to say MLA (Mean Line of Advance - ie the direction the ship is travelling) followed by a cross stern shot followed by a reverse MLA. Min approach distance being 1/4 mile (500ft).

Alternatively you might do a Reverse MLA, followed buy a cross bow shot followed by a MLA.

At the time, and at a grand old age of 15 or so, I had no idea why they did what they did, or why they did it. But it was fun the first 4 or 5 times.
3 photo's each run, don't remember the exact course of events but your thoughts make more sense.

You are a font of knowledge Ma'am; have you ever shared where you did whatever you did and when you did it?

[PRTVR]

db said:

Ginetta G15 Girl said:

Peacetime MOA (Minimum Operating Altitude) for Nimrod was 200ft.

I have no idea why you would pull up to 2000ft to manoeuvre given that you could use 60 degrees angle of bank at 500ft (unless there was bad low level turbulence).

For ship phptography you would do a 'run of 3', that is to say MLA (Mean Line of Advance - ie the direction the ship is travelling) followed by a cross stern shot followed by a reverse MLA. Min approach distance being 1/4 mile (500ft).

Alternatively you might do a Reverse MLA, followed buy a cross bow shot followed by a MLA.

At the time, and at a grand old age of 15 or so, I had no idea why they did what they did, or why they did it. But it was fun the first 4 or 5 times.
3 photo's each run, don't remember the exact course of events but your thoughts make more sense.

You are a font of knowledge Ma'am; have you ever shared where you did whatever you did and when you did it?

Could have just being entertained young guests, sounds like a bit of a rollercoaster ride, sounds a fantastic experience.

[donutsina911]

Ayahuasca said:

Those Russian 'trawlers' that shadowed NATO vessels. What intelligence were they collecting, and did NATO have similar spy ships?

Movements (both broad brush unit movements and specific tactics), sound and emissions in a nutshell and yes...

[Ayahuasca]

donutsina911 said:

Ayahuasca said:

Those Russian 'trawlers' that shadowed NATO vessels. What intelligence were they collecting, and did NATO have similar spy ships?

Movements (both broad brush unit movements and specific tactics), sound and emissions in a nutshell and yes...

Any info on 'our' ones? The only one I remember was the 'St Georges' sunk by a mine in the Aegean and they lost the ATAC decoder...

.. but that may have been in a James Bond film.

[donutsina911]

Ayahuasca said:

Any info on 'our' ones? The only one I remember was the 'St Georges' sunk by a mine in the Aegean and they lost the ATAC decoder...

.. but that may have been in a James Bond film.

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1997/nov/25/mt-gaul

Not particularly insightful, but understandably so...

[ecsrobin]

donutsina911 said:

Ayahuasca said:

Any info on 'our' ones? The only one I remember was the 'St Georges' sunk by a mine in the Aegean and they lost the ATAC decoder...

.. but that may have been in a James Bond film.

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1997/nov/25/mt-gaul

Not particularly insightful, but understandably so...

An interesting read. I was moored alongside a classic hull trawler in Cowes 2 years ago and they were offering tours of the radio room used for intelligence gathering.

[db]

PRTVR said:

Could have just being entertained young guests, sounds like a bit of a rollercoaster ride, sounds a fantastic experience.

It was great, but didn't fully appreciate it at the time.
Young, tired and not expecting to experience the "vomit comet" at low altitudes was a bit, well, unexpected...
And the food was truly awful
But, I'd love to do something similar again.

[bristolracer]

Didnt the Russians once send a Naval vessel right through the centre of our battle fleets when we were exercising?
The idea being that we would panic, light up all our our systems and comms and the nearby "trawlers" would be watching and listening.

[Europa1]

bristolracer said:

Didnt the Russians once send a Naval vessel right through the centre of our battle fleets when we were exercising?
The idea being that we would panic, light up all our our systems and comms and the nearby "trawlers" would be watching and listening.

Slightly off topic, but still related to naval spying: an episode of "The Silent War" on BBC2 had interviews with some of the Royal Navy submarine crew who recorded the acoustic signature and took photos of the underside of the Soviet carrier Kiev - that was truly hair raising stuff! Well worth watching if it's repeated or available online.

[Boatbuoy]

I'm sure this has been mentioned in the BTP threads before, but it's a good tale of Cold War Naval antics, and relevant to this discussion. Operation 'Barmaid', HMS Conqueror's capture of a Soviet Towed Array:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/960...

[DJFish]

I once sailed with a chap who would hide from passing Russian ships, any Russian ships convinced they were taking his photo to use for nefarious communist purposes.
He was a proper nutter.

[psychoR1]

I once sailed with an ex trawler radio operator - he worked the north sea trawlers in the 70's/80's.

Funny enough he wasn't employed by the trawler company - was actually a Marconi employee and boasted about being paid more than the trawlermen.....

He was quite cagey about parts of it - cant think why

[Ayahuasca]

Sounds like our trawlers did more actual fishing than the Soviet trawlers.

[donutsina911]

Kind of relevant to this thread with a busy Christmas for HM Ships St Albans (T23, Fleet Ready Escort),Tyne (Fishery Protection) and the Fleet Air Arm:

Akademik Alexsandr Karpinsky & Admiral Vladimirsky (Polar research ships) in the English Channel...







Russian FF, Admiral Gorshkov, shadowed by St Albans, second photo courtesy of a Merlin L3 WESCAM







Pics courtesy of Navy Lookout

[hidetheelephants]

psychoR1 said:

I once sailed with an ex trawler radio operator - he worked the north sea trawlers in the 70's/80's.

Funny enough he wasn't employed by the trawler company - was actually a Marconi employee and boasted about being paid more than the trawlermen.....

He was quite cagey about parts of it - cant think why

Merchant navy radio operators were all employed by Marconi, it was a skilled job and they would have been paid similarly to a 2nd engineer or a mate.