Overview
- Royal Navy warships and helicopters conducted 21 days of focused operations in July as activations to track Russian vessels rose 25% year‑on‑year, the ministry said.
- On July 20 the Russian frigate Neustrashimy carried out a roughly 30‑minute live gunnery exercise in international waters while Portsmouth‑based HMS Tyne observed from about five nautical miles and recorded around 20 rounds from the 100mm gun plus 30mm fire.
- Between July 23 and 26 HMS Severn intercepted and shadowed Neustrashimy as it escorted the shadow‑fleet tanker MV Vulkan through the Dover Strait, taking over from HMS Mersey during the three‑day mission.
- Type 23 frigate HMS Somerset returned to Plymouth on August 7 after a four‑month North Atlantic deployment that covered more than 24,000 nautical miles while operating with an embarked Merlin helicopter.
- The operations form part of a wider UK effort that has sanctioned more than 500 vessels tied to the opaque 'shadow fleet', a campaign officials link to lower Russian oil revenues and to a strain on patrol resources and crews.