Monday 16 April 2018

Royal Navy submarine locked in ‘cat and mouse’ pursuit with pair of Russian hunter-killer subs dubbed ‘the Black Hole’

Astute-class submarine


 ASTUTE TACTICS Royal Navy submarine locked in ‘cat and mouse’ pursuit with pair of Russian hunter-killer subs dubbed ‘the Black Hole’
Two Russian frigates were also involved in the pursuit under the Mediterranean amid growing tensions over US-led airstrikes against the Assad regime

 By Patrick Knox

 A BRITISH attack submarine has been trapped in a tense "cat-and mouse" pursuit by Vladimir Putin's stealthy hunter killer subs, it has been revealed.

 Two Russian frigates and an anti-submarine aircraft are also thought to have been hunting for HMS Astute as it manoeuvred to put its Tomahawk cruise missiles within range of Syria.


Sources have told The Times the Royal Navy nuclear powered submarine is believed to have been stalked by at least one but possibly two Russian Kilo-class subs —  dubbed  "the Black Hole" because they are so quiet and hard to track.

Two Russian frigates and an anti-submarine aircraft are also thought to have joined the hunt. 

The £1.2billion Astute-class boat is believed to have spent several days playing the kind of dangerous and tense game of hide-and-seek which characterised the Royal Navy's Cold War activity. 

Russian and Brit subs have increasingly been doing this out in the north Atlantic, North Sea and Mediterranean amid imploding relations between the two countries following chemical attacks in Salisbury and Syria.........Read rest of article: HERE


The article goes on to show the Western military assets in the area but fail to show Russian assets.  I dug up some info but could get very little on Russian air assets and only partially as per article published by Business Insider (below) limited only to the Latakia Air Base.


"Israeli satellites on Saturday revealed two Russian Su-57s at its Hmeimim air base in Syria.

A Russian official said the Su-57s were deployed to the war-torn country as a deterrent "for aircraft from neighboring states, which periodically fly into Syrian airspace uninvited."

Additional satellite images from July 2017 also showed 10 other kinds of Russian jets and planes, 33 aircraft altogether, stationed at its air base in Latakia.

There's probably, however, more than 33, as some jets and aircraft could have been conducting sorties or flying elsewhere when the images were taken." Source: businessinsider.com

From what I understand there are 11 Russian naval assets in Syria and all are at sea one ship is known as Admiral Essen which is an Admiral Grigorovich Class Frigate was sent to Syria in March


 Astute Class SSN Submarine: Details
Project 11356 Admiral Grigorovich Class Frigates: Details

 DefenseNewsX
Published on Nov 1, 2017
Interesting Facts About Project 638 Varshavyanka Kilo Class Submarine


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