3 hours ago UK combatant jets intercepted a Russian maritime patrol craft aft it "repeatedly approached" a bearer onslaught radical successful the Norwegian Sea, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
The Russian Bear-F level passed astatine debased altitude and "unnecessarily close" to the HMS Prince of Wales craft bearer and is believed to person dropped 10 sonobuoys into the h2o connected Thursday, the MoD added.
The MoD said Moscow's enactment successful the Norwegian Sea was "unsafe and unprofessional".
It comes weeks aft Royal Marines boarded a Russian shadiness fleet lipid tanker successful the English Channel, portion the caput of the subject has warned the risks and threats facing the UK are greater present than astatine immoderate clip since the Cold War.
The UK's Carrier Strike Group is presently deployed disconnected Iceland nether Nato command, with 1,500 British unit connected board.
The radical consists of HMS Prince of Wales, Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan, F-35 jets, Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, and is supported by RFA Tidespring, a replenishment tanker.
The monitoring devices which were believed to person been dropped by the Bear-F level interval connected the h2o and usage sonar to observe submarines and different vessels.
British forces attempted to interaction the Russian level connected planetary frequencies, but it did not respond.
Two F-35 jets past flew from the Prince of Wales to escort the Bear-F distant from the Carrier Strike Group.
Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis visited British forces connected committee the flagship HMS Prince of Wales implicit the play and told Channel 4 News: "We should beryllium clear-eyed astir the information that the menace from Russia exists successful each domain, nether the water, connected the water, connected the land, successful the sky, successful abstraction and successful cyberspace arsenic well."
Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Richard Knighton told the BBC successful June that Russia had been "probing, challenging, investigating our defences", and was "raising the stakes and risks crossing a line".
English (US)·