Navy

Russian submarines in battle formation north of Scotland – is UK READY FOR WAR probe?

VLADIMIR Putin is getting ready for "state versus state war" after two Russian attack submarines were revealed to have carried out "duelling" exercises in waters north of Scotland, testing Britain's preparedness for war.

But there is "absolutely no sign" any of the candidates in next month's general election are taking national defence seriously, a UK-based expert has said. Russian President Mr Putin is determined to make the North Atlantic a place where NATO will "fear to venture", said Iain Ballantyne, whose book, The Deadly Trade, published earlier this year, looks at various aspects of modern warfare. Mr Ballantyne sounded his chilling warning after Northern Fleet submarines Nizhny Novgorod and Pskov staged “sparring and tracking” war games between Scotland, Greenland and Iceland recently, according to Russian Government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.  

He told Express.co.uk: "The big message from Putin’s navy here is that it is getting ready again for state versus state war under the sea with a peer enemy.

"Russia is muscle-flexing, aiming to deter by showing battle fitness.

"Long gone are the days when Russian submarines rarely went to sea or trained for combat."

The Pskov and Nizhny Novgorod, which are both titanium-hulled deep diving attack submarines, with a high level of stealth, were "rather long in the tooth", having been commissioned almost 30 years ago, when compared with the US Navy’s Virginia and Sea Wolf classes of attack boats, and the Astutes of the Royal Navy, Mr Ballantyne said.