UK vows to ‘tackle Russian spy ship’ after laser assault on RAF jet | UK | News | EUROtoday

Britain has fired a chilling warning shot at Russia, threatening navy motion over any future incursions by a suspected spy ship caught attempting to blind RAF pilots with lasers off the Scottish coast.

Defence Secretary John Healey pulled no punches as he introduced the Royal Navy could be tearing up its “rules of engagement” to get powerful on the Yantar after the vessel was detected menacing British waters earlier this month, stories The Telegraph.

In a bombshell Downing Street press convention, Healey revealed the ship had overtly fired beams of sunshine at an RAF P-8 Poseidon submarine hunter jet dispatched to maintain tabs on its actions – an act he slammed as “deeply dangerous.”

The livid Defence Secretary put Russia and Vladimir Putin on discover, declaring: “We see you, we know what you’re doing and if the Yantar travels south this week we are ready.”

He warned grimly that Britain had “military options ready should Yantar change course.”

Royal Navy to get extra aggressive

Cranking up Britain’s navy response, Healey vowed British warships would now shadow the Yantar extra intently and aggressively, closing in to a distance understood to be in regards to the size of a soccer pitch.

It marks the second time this yr the Yantar has overtly ventured into UK waters, with defence chiefs satisfied the ship is utilizing its array of sensors to spy on essential undersea infrastructure.

While a senior defence insider stated it will be “inconceivable” for British ships to open hearth on the Yantar except it did “something very, very aggressive”, MPs are pushing for a good more durable line.

Calls for ‘extra assertive retaliation’

Matt Western, chair of the National Security Strategy committee, warned “more assertive retaliation may be required” as he insisted “there is more we can do”.

Russia scoffed at Healey’s “provocative statements”, with its London embassy dismissing the “endless accusations and suspicions of the British leadership” as “simply laughable.”

Moscow claimed the Yantar was an “oceanographic research vessel” working in “international waters” and denied undermining UK safety – as an alternative blaming Britain’s “Russophobic course and the escalation of militaristic hysteria” for “creating the preconditions for new dangerous situations.”

Yantar ‘designed for surveillance and sabotage’

But Healey was adamant the Yantar is “part of a Russian fleet designed to put and hold our undersea infrastructure and those of our allies at risk”, working underneath the “Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI.”

He stated the programme is “designed to have capabilities which can undertake surveillance in peacetime and sabotage in conflict.”

Vowing Britain “will not tolerate a threat to the British people’s essential connections under water”, he highlighted the UK’s readiness to steer allies in responding to assaults on essential infrastructure.

The stand-off comes as tensions between Britain and Russia stay at boiling level over the warfare in Ukraine, with the Yantar seen as simply the most recent try by the Kremlin to check the West’s resolve.