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UK defence secretary John Healey has warned President Vladimir Putin that the UK has lowered the rules of engagement in the North Sea after a Russian spy ship encroached on British waters and targeted an RAF surveillance plane with lasers.
Healey said during a speech in London on Wednesday that the Yantar spy ship was at present close to UK waters near Shetland and had entered them earlier this month.
He added that pilots of an RAF Poseidon 8 surveillance aircraft that was monitoring the ship’s movements had reported being targeted by lasers.
“This is the first time we’ve had this action from Yantar directed against the British RAF,” Healey said, adding that the Royal Navy frigate HMS Somerset had also been deployed to track the ship.
“We take it extremely seriously,” he said. “I’ve changed the Navy’s rules of engagement so that we can follow more closely, monitor more closely, the activities of the Yantar when it’s in our wider waters. We have military options ready.
“My message to Russia and to Putin is this: we see you. We know what you’re doing, but if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”
In response to Healey’s remarks, the Russian embassy tweeted on Wednesday: “London, with its Russophobic course and whipping up militaristic hysteria, contributes to the further degradation of European security.”
“We call on the British side to refrain from destructive steps that aggravate the crisis in Europe.”
The Yantar — which is operated by Gugi, Russia’s secretive deep-sea research unit — is designed for mapping and surveilling undersea cables on which the UK and other Nato allies rely for energy, communications and internet connectivity.
It is equipped with submersibles whose manipulator arms are able to tap cables and intercept information from them. These small submarines could also be used to plant explosives near clusters of cables for detonation at a future date.
Healey 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.”
While the lasers are not thought to be capable of bringing down an aircraft directly, officials at the Ministry of Defence suggested they were more sophisticated and powerful than a simple laser pointer pen.
Healey’s confirmation that he has “military options ready” to use against the Yantar signals a strengthening of the UK’s response to underwater surveillance activities.
While the Yantar has been tracked close to British waters and off the west coast of Ireland in recent years, it was not until January that the defence secretary called out its activities and warned Moscow that the UK would take “robust action” to protect its underwater infrastructure.
Ahead of Healey’s warning in January, the Royal Navy surfaced a nuclear-powered attack submarine in front of the Yantar to scare it and to let Russia know that the UK was tracking its every move.
MoD officials declined to comment on whether a submarine was tracking the vessel this time, with movements of the UK’s undersea fleet highly classified.
The defence secretary was clear with Moscow, however, that more assertive retaliation could be taken if the ship entered UK waters.
Healey said he would not reveal the UK’s exact response as that would “only make President Putin wiser”.
He added: “But I would just say to you, look at what we did last time, when the Yantar was in British waters — we surfaced a nuclear-powered British attack submarine close to that ship, a submarine that they did not know was there that had helped track its every movement before.”
