Hi Colin, the reports on TV and the media about Russian spy ships, left me a bit amused. When I worked for the RMAS at Greenock on the Clyde from 1977 to 1980, one of the long established duties we had was to go AGI (alien gathering intelligence) escort, we used to relieve RFA's from 2 to 3 weeks at a time. When I was there the Rollicker was used, remember we had to keep extremely close them and even more at night, every hour give their position course and speed. During my time a SSBN was followed very closely by a Russian sub SE off Islay on a torpedo firing exercise, it whistled up some helo's from the nearby RN air station who laid a trap with passive snar drops, the SSBN sped up through and the Russian followed un aware of the sonar buoys and they obtained a complete sound signature etc of the latest Russian submarine class which up to then had eluded Nato. But this sneaky spying affair has gone on for years, our subs did it to them. Trouble is now we have fewer ships operational and even smaller amount of suitable other vessels due to cuts etc. Made a lot of money in overtime on AGI's then.
