{"id":148537,"date":"2025-11-19T16:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T16:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/148537\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T16:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T16:05:06","slug":"russian-spy-ship-on-course-for-irish-waters-with-uk-threatening-military-options-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/148537\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian spy ship on course for Irish waters, with UK threatening \u2018military options\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Russian<\/a> spy ship appears on course for Irish-controlled waters, with the UK<\/a> promising a military<\/a> response should it change course.<\/p>\n

According to the UK government, the Yantar, which is capable of interfering with subsea cables<\/a>, has been spotted off the Scottish<\/a> coast, just outside the UK\u2019s territorial waters.<\/p>\n

It has been pointing lasers at RAF pilots sent to conduct surveillance aircraft of the ship, British defence secretary<\/a> John Healey said on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

The Yantar has its automatic identification system switched off, meaning it is not available on publicly accessible vessel trackers. <\/p>\n

However, open source aircraft trackers show RAF aircraft, including Typhoon fighter jets, patrolling an area off Tiree, an island in the Inner Hebrides, off Scotland\u2019s west coast.<\/p>\n

The location suggests the Yantar is intending to sail south, either into the Irish Sea<\/a> or down the Irish west coast. Both courses would likely bring it into the Ireland\u2019s Exclusive Economic Zone.<\/p>\n

The Yantar, which is officially described as an auxiliary general oceanographic research vessel by the Russian authorities, is widely believed by western military intelligence to be equipped to conduct surveillance, and possible sabotage, on critical marine infrastructure such as gas pipelines and communications cables.<\/p>\n

The Yantar took a similar path down the Irish Sea in November last year where it was shadowed by an Irish naval ship and maritime patrol aircraft.<\/p>\n

At one stage, Irish military personnel observed three drones in the air that appeared to be under the control of the Yantar.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Yantar, which has a crew of 60, is believed to be capable of deploying autonomous undersea drones capable of interfering with subsea infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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The ship\u2019s reappearance has drawn a sharp response from the UK government.<\/p>\n

The ship is \u201cdesigned for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables\u201d, Mr Healey told journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message to Russia and to Putin is this: we see you. We know what you\u2019re doing. And if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is part of a Russian fleet designed to put and hold our undersea infrastructure and those of our allies at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t just a naval operation. It\u2019s part of a Russian programme driven by what they call the main directorate of deep-sea research, or GUGI, and this is designed to have capabilities which can undertake surveillance in peacetime and sabotage in conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why we\u2019ve been determined, whenever the Yantar comes into British wider waters, we track it, we deter it and we say to Putin we are ready, and we do that alongside allies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have military options ready should the Yantar change course. I am not going to reveal those because that only makes President Putin wiser,\u201d Mr Healey said.<\/p>\n

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At a press conference in Downing Street, the defence secretary said for the first time the Yantar had used lasers to \u201cdisrupt\u201d RAF pilots. He called this a deeply dangerous action.<\/p>\n

In recent years Russian and Chinese ships have increasingly targeted rival aircraft or ships with high-power invisible lasers in an apparent effort to blind crews.<\/p>\n

The Defence Forces<\/a> has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Russian spy ship appears on course for Irish-controlled waters, with the UK promising a military response should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13308,42,43,3589,9036,40,38,41,39,1577],"class_list":{"0":"post-148537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-defence-forces","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-uk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}