Maybe they have a rogue Typhoon class submarine with a commander who wishes to defect?

Ivan in the North Sea at the same time as Join Warrior - not exactly a coincidence.

Perhaps Morayvia can get the old Nimrod hanging about Kinloss airworthy and use it to keep an eye on them :E

According to Auntie, "Russian submarines (this one pictured passing the Norwegian island of Andoya) would typically help protect the larger ships"

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cps..._submarine.jpg

Allegedly taken off Andoya on Monday. If accurate, one might suspect that boat isn't going too far further south.......or someone has called the skippers pint a puff, with perhaps unforeseen consequences.....

Knew a man when I was growing up who participated in Allied actions in Russia in that time.

Wouldn't get too carried away on that one after all our T45's were all tied up in Portsmouth because of issues in design a short while ago.

Russians prepare for every eventuality.

Actually that is a falshehood on the T45 issue. They were alongside for a number of reasons, not least summer leave! They were not all alongside for mechanical reasons.

More Admirals than ships?

It all depends on how one defines "ship" in this context. Taken from a recent written answer to a Parlimentary question the RN presently has: 40 Admirals; 80 Commodores; 290 Captains; 1060 Commanders; 2000 Lieutenant Commanders; 2510 Lieutenants and 750 Sub-Lietenenants. Which does appear to be a little top-heavy for the number of ships the RN presently has. In particular the 80 Commodores and 290 Captains when taking account of the fact that the majority of warships are commanded by an officer of Commander rank or below and as far as I'm aware there is now only one (part-time) sea going post for an officer of 1* or above. Is Parkinson's law alive and well and living within the RN?

Not a Boffin: my old recognition training says "SSBN, Delta Class" but I can't tell if it's a Delta II or a Delta III.

Suspect it's a IV. On the surface. With a tube hatch open. Not recommended......

Interestingly Richmond went AIS dark after leaving Tynemouth this afternoon - how are we armchair admirals meant to follow Ivan ??

Good job the wars never start when people are on summer leave then............

Could almost pay for a decent pay rise for the Junior ranks if had a decent cull of senior officers.

Norwegian media are reporting that the Russians ended the flight ops early and have moved further south.

Google translate from Norwegian media link.

Russerne avbrøt øvelse i Norskehavet - nå er de på vei sørover mot Syria

Some people call the Russian fleet a "flottilla"...

Actually the "Piotr Veliky" is the biggest battlecruiser in the world. I would like to be in the Channel the next couple of day, to see the tiny RN frigate bobbling in the wake of the Russian battleship...
The days of hunting the Bismarck are over - especially without maritime patrol aircraft (and aircraft carriers, of course) Fortunately the French Navy will be there to once the Dutch and Norwegians have left.

It's odd, going by another thread on here aircraft carriers are an obsolete waste of resources, and yet someone sails one with about six aircraft on past Dover and suddenly it's the end of the world.

Not a boffin.


Curious to know the source for the picture of the Delta? I was intrigued to see it, especially on the surface with a missile tube open.

????? ?????????? ???????? ? ????? - ???????????? ???? ??? ????? ???????? - BBC ??????? ??????

It appears on the Russian BBC, credited to AFP and the Norwegian MOD

Barents Observer

Apparently after a launch??

This event must have been warned?

Imagegear

If true, that seems pretty weird. Why on Earth would you put one of your SSBNs in the vicinity of a group of surface ships that is inevitably going to attract interest from potential adversaries? Surely one of the central tenets of SSBN operation is that you do everything in your power to make sure no-one knows where you are, or gets close enough to get a sniff of your acoustic signature? I almost wonder whether it's a poorly-chosen library photo...

As for surfacing with the hatch open - I guess it's conceivable one might have a hatch issue and have to surface in a hurry to fix it from the outside (if it wasn't an emergency you'd presumably wait, and do it in the dark...)

Edit: Makes more sense in the light of ImageGear's post - separate deployment in a different location...

Yes - all ballistic missile tests have to be pre-notified, and various steps taken to allow interested parties to monitor them (which I guess is how the Norwegians ended up taking the photo). Very interesting account of a British Trident test in Hennessy's book.