MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

PM Burnham first day in office “welcomed” by Russian navy live fire gunnery in the Channel south of Plymouth

Outgunned but unperturbed… HMS Tyne inbound to Devonport on the evening of 20th July after the incident (Photo: Kevin Kelway / Westward Shipping).

In what appears to have been a calculated show of military presence close to the UK, the Russian Navy marked the first full day of Andy Burnham’s premiership by conducting a live-fire gunnery exercise in the English Channel while under close surveillance from the Royal Navy.

The Baltic Fleet frigate  RFS Neustrashimy carried out the exercise on Monday 20 July around 40 nautical miles south of Plymouth while being shadowed by HMS Tyne. The drill took place in international waters but within one of the world’s busiest commercial shipping lanes.

The BBC reports the Russian frigate warned OPV HMS Tyne before commencing the firing serial. The exercise reportedly lasted around 30 minutes. An MoD spokesperson confirmed that: “The Royal Navy monitored that exercise throughout, continues to track the vessel’s activity closely, and stands ready to protect UK national security.”

While Russian naval transits through the English Channel are routinely shadowed by RN vessels, live-fire exercises in such close proximity to the UK are rare. Conducting one in the congested waters of the Channel serves as a reminder that Moscow remains willing to use military activity close to NATO territory as a strategic signal, even if fully within the bounds of international law.

There is no official suggestion the exercise was directly linked to the change of government, but the timing is striking. It came as the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, entered Downing Street and Wes Streeting took over as Defense Secretary, inheriting a department facing increasing pressure from an assertive Russia, continued support for Ukraine and growing demands to strengthen the Armed Forces.

According to navyoutlook.com, the 3,500-ton RFS Neustrashimy, commissioned in 1993, is armed with a 100 mm main gun, anti-ship missiles, torpedoes and close-in weapon systems. It is believed she was recently fitted with the PEROED-M counter-drone electronic jamming system. She was observed transiting the Danish Straits on 3rd July after leaving the Baltic Sea on and appears to have assumed Russia’s Channel patrol mission following the departure of the frigate RFS Admiral Grigorovich, which spent around three months operating around the English Channel before returning to Baltiysk in Kaliningrad last week.

A Sky News helicopter filmed RFS Neustrashimy receiving supplies from the PM-82 floating workshop in the North Sea, in international waters off Clacton on 11th July.
RAF Typhoons and a supporting Voyager tanker were observed operating over the Channel in the vicinity of the Russian frigate during the exercise. A French maritime patrol aircraft was also reported to have been monitoring the vessel.