UK Foils "Nefarious" Russian Activity Near Subsea Cables
The UK government claims that it has discovered and disrupted Russian plans to conduct "nefarious" activity over critical subsea fiber optic cables. The plot involved the assets of the secretive Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research (GUGI), a spy-submarine outfit that reports directly to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The month-long operation started when British forces detected an Akula-class Russian attack sub in Arctic waters last month. Working with Norwegian partners, the UK military tracked the sub; further detections established that the Akula's mission was to distract from the movements of other Russian undersea assets belonging to GUGI.
After this discovery, the UK and allied partners demonstrated presence to show the Russian intruders that they were being watched and tracked. The Type 23 frigate HMS St. Albans and oiler RFA Tidespring deployed to monitor the activity. Once it was clear that the advantage of secrecy was lost, the Russian subs headed for home, according to the UK.
The government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been under pressure over the UK's alleged limitations in deploying a credible force to the Mideast, a function in part of decades of systematic underfunding of the Royal Navy. The announcement of the Russian submarine operation provides a counterpoint to that critique, and Starmer emphasized in a statement that the UK's armed forces "are among the best in the world."
"I want to pay tribute to the UK personnel who spent many days tracking these Russian submarines in extremely challenging and treacherous conditions. While the eyes of many – understandably – were on the Middle East, our British Armed Forces were simultaneously responding to rising Russian threats north of the UK," said UK defense secretary John Healey. "To Putin, I say this: we see you, we see your activity over our underwater infrastructure. You should know that any attempt to damage it will not be tolerated and would have serious consequences."
Along with the narrative, the UK released rare satellite imaging of an unnamed GUGI submarine asset at a pier in Olenya Guba on the Kola Peninsula. (The vessel's general appearance aligns with BS-64 Podmoskovye, a stretched Delta-IV spy sub carrier, per H.I. Sutton.) GUGI's submarines are almost never seen in the wild by civilian observers, and are the subject of considerable speculation.
that matters most
Get the latest maritime news delivered to your inbox daily.
UK forces have clashed with GUGI's assets before. Last year, the Russian spy ship Yantar transited British waters and lingered too long for its welcome; the Royal Navy chased it off by surfacing an attack submarine in close proximity, Healey related after the operation.