UK — HMS York monitors Russian aircraft carrier ‘Admiral Kuznetsov’

HMS York has been acti­vat­ed as the Roy­al Navy’s fleet ready escort, and is mon­i­tor­ing the largest ship in the Russ­ian Navy, the air­craft car­ri­er Admi­ral Kuznetsov.

HMS York meets up with the Russ­ian air­craft car­ri­er Admi­ral Kuznetsov in inter­na­tion­al waters off the east coast of Scot­land [Pic­ture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2011] Source: Min­istry of Defence, UK Click to enlarge

The Type 42 destroy­er sailed north from her home port of Portsmouth last week and first observed the Admi­ral Kuznetsov north east of the Orkneys in the ear­ly hours of Mon­day, 12 Decem­ber 2011. 

She will remain in close com­pa­ny with the Admi­ral Kuznetsov and her sup­port­ing task group, con­sist­ing of a destroy­er, two frigates, two tankers and an ocean-going tug, whilst they are in the vicin­i­ty of the UK. 

The Admi­ral Kuznetsov and her task group are believed to be deploy­ing to the Mediter­ranean for exer­cis­es and train­ing. The air­craft car­ri­er is 999 feet (304m) long and dis­places around 55,000 tonnes. 

It is the first time she has deployed near the UK for a num­ber of years and HMS York’s pres­ence con­tin­ues to demon­strate the Roy­al Navy’s com­mit­ment to main­tain­ing the integri­ty and secu­ri­ty of UK waters. 

The Admi­ral Kuznetsov task group is cur­rent­ly with­in the inter­na­tion­al waters of the Moray Firth shel­ter­ing from poor weather. 

HMS York’s Com­mand­ing Offi­cer, Com­man­der Rex Cox, said: 

“Our pres­ence is a clear sig­nal to the Russ­ian task group that the Roy­al Navy is active and alert around UK waters and we will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor their activ­i­ties as they make their way south. 

“We are well-prac­tised in this type of oper­a­tion and are ready to posi­tion any­where around the UK and to pro­vide a robust pres­ence when called upon.” 

Press release
Min­istry of Defence, UK 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter