UK carrier group Russian interception unfolded on Thursday when UK fighter jets intercepted a Russian Bear-F maritime patrol aircraft after it repeatedly approached HMS Prince of Wales in the Norwegian Sea. The MoD said the aircraft passed at low altitude and unnecessarily close to the carrier.
The Bear-F is believed to have dropped 10 sonobuoys into the water. British forces tried to contact the aircraft on international frequencies, but it did not respond, and two F-35 jets then flew from HMS Prince of Wales to escort it away from the Carrier Strike Group.
HMS Prince of Wales and the Norwegian Sea
The Carrier Strike Group is deployed off Iceland under Nato command and has 1,500 British personnel on board. Its deployed force includes HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Duncan, F-35 jets, Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, and RFA Tidespring. The monitoring devices believed to have been dropped float on the water and use sonar to detect submarines and other vessels.
The MoD described Moscow's activity in the Norwegian Sea as unsafe and unprofessional. The incident also follows a wider pattern of pressure around UK deployments, with Sir Richard Knighton saying in June that Russia had been probing, challenging, testing our defences and was raising the stakes and risks crossing a line.
Dan Jarvis on Nato deterrence
Dan Jarvis visited British forces on board the flagship over the weekend and said, “We live in an increasingly dangerous and uncertain time, and it's deployments like this, supported by allies and partners including Iceland, that improve our deterrence and defence as part of Nato.” He also told Channel 4 News, “We should be clear-eyed about the fact that the threat from Russia exists in every domain, under the water, on the water, on the land, in the sky, in space and in cyberspace as well.”
That context matters because the strike group is operating as part of Nato's first air policing operations from a European aircraft carrier, with British fighters already on station to react if another approach comes close to HMS Prince of Wales. Whether the suspected 10 sonobuoys were actually dropped and what the Russian aircraft was trying to achieve is not explained.
