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[DavieTait]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203518404577096383912177196.html

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD

A British Royal Naval destroyer was scrambled on Monday to "keep watch" on a Russian aircraft carrier and its escorts, the Ministry of Defense said.

The Royal Navy's Type 42 destroyer HMS York sailed from Portsmouth, southern England, to meet with Russia's Admiral Kuznetsov off the east coast of Scotland. The 65,000 ton carrier, with warships and support vessels, anchored outside British territorial waters some 30 miles off the Moray Firth, in Scotland.

The Admiral Kuznetsov "was thought to have taken advantage of the relative shelter to avoid the worst of current bad weather in the North Sea," the MOD said in a statement Tuesday.

Britain, though, often has to scramble fighter jets to escort Russian military aircraft flying near to British airspace.

[DavieTait]

Saw some video of this on SKY news just now but can't find the vid online yet. The weather is getting pretty wild so I guess they just want to drop anchor and ride this storm out after all the Admiral Kuznetsov always has a salvage tug with her on deployment as her engines aren't that reliable

[Daemon]

Im not liking the sound of this....

[DavieTait]

Nothing to worry about the weather up here is pretty nasty and getting worse by the hour , forecast for up here is F8-F9 possibly reaching F10 for a time overnight easing off tomorrow for a while before getting back up to F9-F10 again for the rest of the week so this will just be a hide from the weather thing nothing worse , now if she was the EU "flagship" then yes I'd be worried lol

[MikeA]

if worse comes to worse we can allways send the harriers....... oh ****

[Daemon]

if worse comes to worse we can allways send the harriers....... oh ****

Hahah, shame there is no +1 or "Like" feature on this forum, lol

It's been damn windy here, too, I live about 20-30 miles north of Newcastle, and im worried the wind is going to rip the (corrugated plastic) covering off the back yard (its literally a yard, there in't enough space to fit a car)

[DavieTait]

She's only 30 miles from RAF Lossiemouth which has the Tornado GR4 strike wing at it so push comes to shove 24 GR4's armed with laser guided bombs would make a bit of a mess of her lol

[andyn]

What? You mean they can actually fly? 

[6705russell]

Strange, can't find the ship on ShipFinder?

Russ

[bobk]

An aircraft carrier parked off Moray Firth ?  Interesting, can't be one of ours - we don't have any, at least nothing that can fly fixed wing aircraft.  But that's what an aircraft carrier is supposed to be isn't it ?  

[brianB6]

If the engines are so bad, perhaps the Russians have heard that Britain no longer has a carrier are hoping to off load it sell it to the UK. 

[DavieTait]

Saw the report on SKY again not long ago apparently the Russian group is headed to the Med for a visit to Syria ....... hmm watch out for Russian Migs helping bomb civilians in about a month ( well provided the boilers don't pack up again lol ) , her engine problems are well documented which is why they have at least one very large ocean going salvage tug in every group involving her , she's supposed to pay off into refit next year to be re-engined but she's supposed to be in a bit of a state and some of the comments I've seen think the Russians will quietly let her rot and either scrap her or try to sell her to the Chinese

[andyn]

You can only see ships on tracking websites if they have their AIS transpoders on....

[DavieTait]

Russia Sends Show Of Support To Syria

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16129689


8:04pm UK, Tuesday December 13, 2011

Sam Kiley, defence and security editor
Russia has dispatched the flagship of its fleet, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov as well as the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, to the eastern Mediterranean where it will visit a naval base Syria, in a show of support of Bashar al Assad the Syrian president facing calls for his indictment for war crimes.

The Kuznetsov was being monitored by HMS Lincoln 30 miles off the coast of Fife, Scotland, in international waters.

But the Voice of Russia said that its task would be to join an exercise in the Mediterranean.

This will include a visit to Tartus, a Syrian port where Russia has a resupply base.

The news came as the United Nations accused Assad and his regime of the murder of 5,000 of his own citizens.

Russian officials said that the tour by the warship, and its escort of sophisticated submarine hunters and air surveillance weapons, had been planned well ahead of recent violence in Syria.

Either way, the intent to go to Tartus, combined with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov's claim that the West was "immoral" in singling out Assad for criticism, sends a signal to Damascus that it has not been abandoned by its old ally to the north.

The Soviet Union armed and trained the Syrian armed forces.

It has significant numbers of aircraft and battle tanks - but all more than a generation older than anything still being used by its neighbour, Turkey, a member of Nato - or Israel, which remains in occupation of the Syrian Golan heights.

The Kuznetsov carrier group, which rarely leaves its base at Severomorsk, will arrive off the coast of Syria early next year.

Its presence is likely to boost the morale of the diplomatically embattled Assad.

He is facing sanctions from the Arab League, veiled threats from Turkey to establish a civilian safe zone on Syrian territory - and a growing violent insurgency against his rule.

The aircraft carrier would send a signal to the West and Nato that the imposition of a no-fly-zone similar to that used against Gaddafi in Libya would be dangerous.

So far Nato members have ruled out military intervention in Syria anyway - not least because of the dangerous regional implications of attacking Assad who is backed by Iran.

Now Assad can be sure, he also has the physical backing of the Kremlin.


Hmm thats HMS York NOT HMS Lincoln?? in the photo 

[andyn]

Well If you wanna really split hairs the Admiral Kuznetsov isn't an aircraft carrier..... 

[funtimefrankie]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1213/weather.html

[DavieTait]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-16215748

Russian warships leave Moray Firth for Atlantic


Russian warships and support vessels which had taken shelter in the Moray Firth are heading for the Atlantic, according to the Royal Navy.

HMS York has been tracking aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, a destroyer and two frigates.

Three oil tankers in the task group left the warships to pass through the Pentland Firth on Thursday.

An ocean-going tug, the Nikolay Chiker, was about 27 miles off Stronsay in Orkney on Friday morning.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the vessels - elements of Russia's Baltic Fleet - were moving over the top of Scotland.

Shetland Coastguard said the tankers had moved through the Pentland Firth - the stretch of water between Scotland's north mainland coast and Orkney.

The Nikolay Chiker had been headed north off Orkney before turning north east.

The coastguard has been unable to track the movements of the military ships.

Russian vessels began to appear in the Moray Firth on Monday to seek shelter from stormy weather.

On Tuesday, SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson said it had been brought to his attention that one of the crews had been dumping waste overboard.

The MoD said the rubbish was most likely to have been waste food, which they were allowed to dump provided there was no plastic in it.

It is understood that the vessels had been heading for the Mediterranean.

Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN said on Monday that the Admiral Kuznetsov, which the Russians class as a heavy aircraft carrying cruiser, had been en route to Syria.

[DavieTait]

An ocean-going tug, the Nikolay Chiker, was about 27 miles off Stronsay in Orkney on Friday morning.

Well shows they still aren't totally happy with engine reliability lol