Russian submarine activity is at its highest level since the cold war, senior Nato officials
have warned, in the latest sign of the alliance’s concerns about Moscow’s military assertiveness.
Rear Admiral Andrew Lennon, Nato submarine forces commander said, Russia has boosted
its subsea fleet and widened the scope of its operations including in the eastern Mediterranean
and around vital transatlantic communications cables
In this video Defense Updates, ANALYSES THE INCREASED RUSSIAN SUBMARINE ACTIVITIES AND
ITS IMPLICATIONS ? Lets gets started.
Admiral Andrew’s comments reflect the lingering suspicion between the alliance and Moscow
since Russia occupied Crimea in 2014. Nato responded to the occupation by bolstering
its forces in the Baltic states and Moscow has accused the Brussels-based alliance of
attempting to encircle and threaten Russia, including by the deployment of missile
defense facilities.
Admiral Lennon said the rise in submarine operations highlighted Russia’s broader
“strong investment” to revive maritime capabilities that withered after the collapse
of the Soviet Union. “Russian submarine . . . activity is higher now in the last three years than
it has been since the cold war,” he said. “What we have observed over the past three
years are more deployments annually of Russian submarines away from their local waters than
we have observed in the prior decade.” He said Nato had seen “a lot of activity”
from 6 new Russian Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines in the Black Sea and Mediterranean,
where Moscow has developed an important strategic foothold in the naval base at Tartus on Syria’s coast.
Russia was also “clearly taking an interest in Nato nations’ undersea infrastructure”,
notably data links between the US and Europe, Admiral Andrew added.
He said the Russian undersea operations near cable routes included a vessel, converted
from a sub that fired ballistic missiles, that he described as a “mother ship” from
which smaller auxiliary research subs could be dispatched. “We believe they may be equipped
to manipulate objects on the ocean floor,” he said, although he did not allege any such
interference had occurred. “So that’s clearly a concern because our nations rely
so much on the internet and communications.”
The apparent Russian focus on the cables, which provide Internet and other communications
connections to North America and Europe, could give the Kremlin the power to sever or tap
into vital data lines.
Britain’s top military commander also warned that Russia could imperil the cables that
form the backbone of the modern global economy. The privately owned lines, laid along the
some of the same corridors as the first transatlantic telegraph wire in 1858, carry nearly all of
the communications on the Internet, facilitating trillions of dollars of daily trade. If severed,
they could snarl the Web. If tapped, they could give Russia a valuable picture of the
tide of the world’s Internet traffic.
Nato strategists say undersea manoeuvres can be effective “asymmetric” operations,
because they tie up alliance submarines, surface ships and spotter aircraft used to track them.
Undersea monitoring has also become more difficult as modern submarines are quieter and the ocean
noisier because of increased commercial shipping, Admiral Lennon added.
Alexander Grushko, Russia’s ambassador to Nato, last week accused the alliance of forcing
Russia unwillingly “into a kind of a military competition in the centre of Europe”. “This
is not our choice, we see the future of security in Europe in a different way,” Mr Grushko
said in a radio interview. “We are convinced that the real security can only be strengthened
through collective efforts.
The new phase of a deadly old Cold War game appears to panning out after a Syrian jet
fighter was shot down by the USS George H.W. Bush’s F/A-18 aircraft on June 18.
Moscow threatened to shoot down US fighter aircraft in retaliation.
Russia has worked to enhance its naval capabilities since 2000.
The Russian Kilo-class submarine is nothing new. It’s been around in some form or another
since the 1980s. But the latest 6 submarines of this class
represents a significant evolution.
It must be noted that one of those submarine Krasnodar was dubbed as Black Hole by some
analysts. Out of the blue on May 29 last year, a series of cruise missiles tore through the
air towards targets around Syria’s besieged city of Palmyra. They were Russian missiles
and they came from the Krasnodar which remained undetected before the missile launch.
The Russians are also building two other new designs.
Both are nuclear powered, The Borei class are Russia’s new generation of ballistic
missile submarines — the cornerstone and most survivable part of its nuclear arsenal.
The hunter class, called the Yasen, is intended to destroy US aircraft carriers.
And the Wall Street Journal speculates one of these — the Kazan — may have secretly
shadowed the USS George H.W. Bush and Britain’s newest aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth,
during August 2017 exercises in the North Atlantic.
Nato member countries including the UK, Norway and Canada, plan to bolster their ability
to track Russia submarines by buying equipment including maritime patrol aircraft, helicopters
and frigates. The 29-member alliance also plans to set up a new north Atlantic command
to deter submarine activity and ensure safe passage of convoys of military reinforcements
from North America to Europe. The focus on submarines reflects wider efforts by Nato
member states to publicise alleged Russian aggression — from misinformation campaigns
and cyber attacks to incursions by Russian jets into the airspace of Nato allies. Air
Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, the UK’s chief of the defense staff and the chairman
of Nato’s military committee from April, last week alleged that Russia posed a growing
threat to undersea internet and telecommunications infrastructure.
Malcolm Chalmers, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said
Nato chiefs also had a “duty” to make political leaders aware of heightened Russia
activity. “The Russian defence budget has increased significantly since 2008 and as
part of that they have spent a lot more money on increasing training exercises . . . they
are simply getting out there more and that means Nato states have to track them."