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A Russian “spy ship” is lurking near British waters where it directed lasers at UK military pilots who were surveilling its activities, the defence secretary has said.
Royal Navy frigates and RAF P-8 planes had been deployed to monitor the Yantar vessel, which is designed for gathering intelligence, when the Russians directed the lasers at the planes.
Mr Healey said Britain “is ready” to respond, with “military options” drawn up if the ship heads south, in a warning to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
He told a Westminster press conference: “My message to Russia and to Putin is this: We see you. We know what you’re doing. And if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”
But what is the Yantar vessel – and what is it doing near British territory?
The Yantar, a so-called ‘research’ ship
Yantar is a special purpose vessel which was built by the Russian Navy’s secretive Main Directorate of Underwater Research (GUGI), an element of Russia’s armed forces – although it reports directly to the ministry of defence.
Its objective, according to the Council on Geostrategy, is to operate submarines which can gather intelligence on the deep sea, allowing possible sabotage of underwater cables.
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Mr Healey called the Yantar’s actions ‘deeply dangerous’ (Ministry of Defence/Crown Copyright)
The ship, which was launched in 2012 and commissioned for work in 2015, is 107.8m (354 ft) long and can reach a speed of 15knots (28kph).
It has since been spotted carrying out operations near the Caribbean islands, Brazil, Norway, Greenland, the Mediterranean, and Ireland, among other areas.
In January, Yantar was spotted near British waters, with Mr Healey describing it as “another example of growing Russian aggression”.
What is Yantar doing?
When Yantar approached British waters in January, Mr Healey said the ship was used for mapping the UK’s critical water infrastructure.
On Wednesday, he echoed those comments.
“It is part of a Russian fleet designed to put and hold our undersea infrastructure and those of our allies at risk,” he said.
“It isn’t just a naval operation. It’s part of a Russian programme driven by what they call the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, and this is designed to have capabilities which can undertake surveillance in peacetime and sabotage in conflict.”
The UK and Nato allies are increasingly concerned about the risk Moscow poses to offshore cables, pipelines and other infrastructure critical to internet connectivity.
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Undated handout photo issued by Ministry of Defence of the Russian spy ship Yantar operating on the edge of UK waters (Ministry of Defence/Crown Copyright)
Use of lasers an ‘escalation’, warns expert
The Yantar directed lasers at two RAF planes, in a move described by Mr Healey as “deeply dangerous”.
“Anything that impedes, disrupts or puts at risk pilots in charge of British military planes is deeply dangerous,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve had this action from Yantar directed against the British RAF – we take it extremely seriously.”
Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at American security think tank the Atlantic Council, told BBC Radio 4’s World At One that it was an “escalation for sure”.
She added: “Essentially, you do it to impede the pilots from doing their work. We don’t know exactly how strong the lasers were, but even if they didn’t blind the pilots, it was provocative.”
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The ship directed lasers at an RAF P-8 aircraft (Getty Images)
Is Britain vulnerable?
Mr Healey has sought to reassure the British public and warn off Moscow, saying that “if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready”.
Attacks on undersea cables could cause “catastrophic disruption” to the financial and communications systems Britons rely on, the National Security Strategy Committee warned in a September report.
The Yantar has been within the UK’s exclusive economic zone, which extends up to 200 nautical miles – about 230 miles – offshore, but has been on the edge of Britain’s territorial waters, within 12 nautical miles (13.8 miles) from the coast.
But Dr Sidharth Kaushal, an expert in maritime technology at the RUSI thinktank, told Sky News the undersea cables near the UK are relatively redundant, but warned the pipelines delivering gas could be more vulnerable to attack.
“I think in some ways the pipeline network is far more fragile because there we are more reliant on a handful of critical pipelines,” he said.
