A Russian submarine sailed off the coast of Brittany. As a Russian building transited a hundred kilometers from the coast, it was finally escorted by the French Navy, reveal our colleagues from the Telegram. The operation took place on September 29 in the midst of the war started by Vladimir Putin against Ukraine for 7 months.
It was the multi-mission frigate (Fremm) Normandy, based in Brest, which followed the Novorosssiysk submarine, a diesel-electric attack ship launched since 2014, which was operating in the Bay of Biscay. She was accompanied by a Russian tugboat, Sergey Balk.
But unusually, the submarine was moving on the surface. “Which, in the context of the war and the tensions generated around Ukraine, acquires a very particular meaning”, indicated Olivier Lebas, maritime prefect of the Atlantic and commander of the Atlantic maritime zone with our colleagues from Telegram.
“A high-performance unit for submarine tracking”
A presence that did not fail to make the European armies react in the region. A Spanish Navy patrol was already under surveillance of the Russian ship. The British navy also took over after the passage of the building from the Breton coast.
For his part, Thomas Vuong, commander of the Normandie, assures that it is a “classic agreement to the extent that the Bay of Biscay corresponds to our area of responsibility and we must control the military activities that take place there”. “explains the soldier to the Parisian.
It also indicated that the frigate had a hull sonar and a towed sonar to monitor the submarine. “The array is particularly effective at tracking the submarine if it were to submerge in our area of responsibility,” she added.
“It is not strange”
“It is not uncommon for these submarines to pass through the Bay of Biscay, between these two strategic points of interest, with the aim of regenerating their potential”, assured the maritime prefect.
The maritime prefecture was also reassuring on Twitter, explaining “that the Fremm Normandie and its helicopter accompanied the Russian submarine Novorossiysk and the Russian tugboat Sergey Balk in the Bay of Biscay.”
In 2017, Jean-Yves Le Drian, then Foreign Minister, explained that Russian submarines were now approaching “the coast of Brittany. What we had not seen for a long time,” he had indicated.
Source: BFM TV
