Healey: UK to lead operation on monitoring Russian shadow fleet
Share:
The UK will lead an operation to track potential threats to undersea infrastructure and monitor the Russian shadow fleet, Defence Secretary John Healey told the Commons. Vessels entering areas of interest will be assessed by the system and if a potential risk is reported, the system will monitor the vessel in real time and immediately warn Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) members and Nato allies.
The reaction system, named Nordic Warden, comes after a power cable, which transmits energy from Finland to Estonia across the Baltic Sea, was reportedly damaged on Christmas Day. On Monday, Mr Healey said: “Russian aggression is not simply confined to Ukraine, and we all saw what happened on Christmas Day. We are deeply concerned about the damage and sabotage to undersea cables.
“And I can confirm to the House that for the first time, the Joint Expeditionary Force, the JEF, has activated an advanced UK-led reaction system to track potential threats to undersea infrastructure and to monitor the movements of the Russian shadow fleet.
“This will be run out of the standing joint force headquarters at Northwood.”. Labour MP for Huddersfield, Harpreet Uppal, had asked: “Following the reported damage to a major undersea cable in the Baltic over Christmas, which Finnish authorities suggest may be indeed linked to a shadow fleet vessel, what further actions is the UK taking alongside European allies to undermine the Russian shadow fleet?”.
