British troops 'ready to seize Russian spy ships'

Britain's rapid deployment troops are "ready" to board and seize Russian ships off the coast if there is evidence they are damaging undersea pipelines and cables.

The prospect, described as a ‘worse case scenario’ response, follows renewed US warnings that Russia is secretly and systematically mapping the UK’s undersea cable and pipelines using electronic markers in a secret operation to prepare 'target plans’.

Britain is so heavily reliant on undersea cables for telecommunications that they are listed as ‘critical infrastructure’.

Though Russia first began the operation in Greenland and Norway in 2015, the CIA is said to have elevated the threat to UK infrastructure as “now significant” in recent briefings with the UK.

Last week defence secretary John Healy was forced to send a clear warning to Putin, stating: “We know what you are doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.”

He revealed that military chiefs had ordered the Royal Navy to intercept Russia’s Yantar spy ship in the English Channel in November - sending the frigate HMS Somerset and the UK’s new underwater surveillance ship Proteus, which carries sub-sea robots.

Yantar is one of more than 50 vessels operated by Russia’s Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, Gugi, and has the capability to deploy robots deep into the English Channel and North Sea

Though not officially part of Russia’s navy. Gugi draws personnel from the 29th Separate Submarine Division and answers directly to ​Moscow's MoD.

“We understand they are dropping electronic ‘markers’ - these are advanced transponders which can be switched on and off to provide exact digital coordinates of critical undersea pipelines,” said a US military source.

“The electronic markers are dropped by semi-submersibles and the operation can be carried out as the Yanter is underway.

“We are now very clear that this operation, sanctioned by Vladimir Putin, is creating a digital map of critical subsea infrastructure which it will target in any conflict with Nato in the future”.

In December Finnish Commandos seized a ship carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea on suspicion it had damaged an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia by deliberately dragging its anchor.

It later emerged that the Eagle S had also dropped “sensors-type devices” in the English Channel during its transit.

Part of a shadow fleet used to bypass sanctions against Russia, the vessel was bristling with surveillance equipment and laptops which would not normally be found on an oil tanker, and had been carried on board in what sources described as “huge portable suitcases”.

The intelligence gleaned is taken to Russia to be analysed.

The UK is a transatlantic hub around which hundreds of fibre optic cables pass along the sea bed to Europe to carry trillions of pounds worth of financial transactions.

These include the 4,500-mile Havfrue/AEC-2 owned jointly by Google and Facebook, which spans between New Jersey to Ireland; Denmark and Norway as well as Google’s 4,000-mile Grace Hopper, which stretches between New York to Cornwall and then Bilbao in Spain.

As part of Nato's response to Russia’s aggression the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force has sent a taskforce into the Baltic to monitor activity by Putin’s spy ships.

The RAF has deployed four Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft into the northern North Sea and it is understood that Nato has submarines in the area including a Royal Navy Astute class submarine.

While he would not reveal what options the UK might take, Mr Healey highlighted the Finnish operation. adding that Britain would make the "strongest possible response".

The UK’s maritime Very High Readiness Force (VHRF) is led by the Royal Marines’ 42 Commando, but also includes elements of the Special Boat Service (SBS).

They were last seen in action in 2020 when 16 SBS commandos used fast ropes dropped from a Chinook helicopter to board the Liberian- flagged oil tanker Nave Andromeda near the Isle of Wight.

Its captain had issued an emergency alert after discovering seven Nigerian stowaways, and it was feared the vessel had been hi-jacked.

A similar incident had occurred two years previously, when SBS commandos stormed the Italian cargo ship Grande Tema following a message from its captain that four stowaways were threatening the crew with iron bars.

Last night senior military sources revealed that the VHRF was “on standby” to board and detain any ship carrying out suspicious activity around UK undersea infrastructure..

“They regularly train for this kind of thing, and they’re ready,” said the source.

“But, of course, it would require a political decision at the highest level, and this would probably be done on a case-by-case basis.”

Alexander Lord, of Sibylline strategic risk group, said: “Russia's land forces may be struggling in Ukraine, but its underwater capabilities outside of the Black Sea have only grown since its 2022 invasion. "

While Russia has submarines capable of deploying cutting equipment to sever cables, the use of such overt assets would deny Putin so-called “plausible deniability”.

He added: "Russia’s maritime doctrine, which allows civilian ships to be co-opted for covert operations, blurs the line between commercial and military assets, complicating Nato's ability to safeguard critical undersea infrastructure.”