Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov

[Fittster]

Daily Wail excitement, Russian aircraft carrier near the UK!!

"A Royal Navy destroyer was scrambled to Scotland in a major security scare after a Russian aircraft carrier came within 30 miles of British shores for the first time in 20 years.
HMS York travelled around 1,000 miles from Portsmouth to keep watch as the 65,000 tonne Admiral Kuznetsov and a number of other battleships anchored on the edge of UK waters.
Today the Scottish National Party accused the Russians of dumping waste into the water while moored off the coast at Moray Firth on Monday."


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073901/HM...

[Eric Mc]

It's OK, after indepndence, the Scottish Navy will be handling this type of situation.

[Fittster]

Sure the SNP could find something at Faslane Naval Base to make sure the Ruskie are using the right type of recycling bins.

[Smiler.]

One ping only.

Mail Article said:

Previously defence chiefs would have scrambled Nimrod aircraft from RAF Kinloss in Moray but because the base has been scrapped in cutbacks and a new fleet of planes cancelled, the Navy had no choice but to send HMS York.

Seriously, might there be a sub in the vicinity? How long would it take HMS York to pitch up? Not exactly rapid is it?

[jmorgan]

I was reading else where they just wanted to shelter from the storm. The naughty bit is they are littering.

[Smiler.]

Well they sure as hell can't be interested in acquiring an SPL team

[Simpo Two]

Sending a destroyer 1,000 miles isn't exactly my idea of 'scrambling'!

It does show that we are totally defenceless though. Luckily we don't have anything any other country wants.

[LotusOmega375D]

I'm looking forward to seeing photographs of this "number of other battleships" that the Mail tells us is also in the vicinity. That must be more of a shock to the Royal Navy than the Kuznetsov washing up.

[dome]

It's interesting what happened to her sister ship, sold to the Chinese as a hulk on the condition it was never to be used for combat. Guess what happened to her...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_aircraft_carri...

[mko9]

At least they didn't spill/dump thousands of gallons of oil into the sea like they did off Ireland in 2008/9 time frame. And there will undoubtedly be a couple other ships with her - a replenishment ship or two, plus a destroyer or something.

Off to The Med for the winter. They'll likely pitch up in Syria as a show of solidarity.

[Mojocvh]

Those will be those now non-existent RAF Squadrons of aircraft then?

[LotusOmega375D]

Perhaps Cameron should retaliate with a show of strength by sending one of our aircraft carriers close to Russian waters?

D'Oh!

[Eric Mc]

We do have one (or maybe even two).

No fixed wing aircraft on them though.

[Sam the Mut]

dome said:

It's interesting what happened to her sister ship, sold to the Chinese as a hulk on the condition it was never to be used for combat. Guess what happened to her...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_aircraft_carri...

what aircraft is china planning to fly of these?

[Gokartmozart]

Sam the Mut said:

what aircraft is china planning to fly of these?

Probably a naval variant of the J-11

[bobthemonkey]

Sam the Mut said:

what aircraft is china planning to fly of these?

Su-33s, (well, their internal, reverse engineered copies after borrowing an airframe from the Ukraine and legitimately building knockdown Su 27s)

[XJSJohn]

wonder how much it is costing in fuel and operations costs to send that destroyer 1000 miles there and back + hold station. ... compared to say .... ohhh a Nimrod?!!?!

But seriously, we had no other suitable ships anywhere else nearer in the British Isles?!?!?

[Mr Dave]

XJSJohn said:

wonder how much it is costing in fuel and operations costs to send that destroyer 1000 miles there and back + hold station. ... compared to say .... ohhh a Nimrod?!!?!

But seriously, we had no other suitable ships anywhere else nearer in the British Isles?!?!?

Back in the cold war days, they sent an air cadet motor glider from an airfield in NI to go take photographs of a Russian spy trawler.

Im sure they could have rustled up a Tornado or something if they really wanted to.

[XJSJohn]

Maybe the skipper just fancied a bit of a jolly up the north sea ....

[davepoth]

XJSJohn said:

wonder how much it is costing in fuel and operations costs to send that destroyer 1000 miles there and back + hold station. ... compared to say .... ohhh a Nimrod?!!?!

But seriously, we had no other suitable ships anywhere else nearer in the British Isles?!?!?

We've got a submarine underneath it, but it would sort of defeat the point if they surfaced and the captain started bellowing at the Russians through a megaphone. Gunboat diplomacy needs a gunboat, really.